Portal: Carthage's Mission
by Draconos13
Summary: 10 years after Carthage was reborn in Aperture Science, he has made the Center his home. However, visions of a former test subject still haunt his mind, driving him to recklessness. When GlaDOS discovers a signal by someone she thought to be long dead, she sends Carthage out to investigate. But can he deal with invading aliens, untrusting humans and his own split personality?
1. Prologue: Visions of the Unknown

**Hello again! I have returned from completing "Portal: Carthage's Story" to give you "Portal: Carthage's Mission", the sequel to my previous online creation.  
In case you didn't read the summary, I am setting this story 10 years after "Portal: Carthage's Story". I hope this story can go as well as the previous one. Again, your comments are appreciated, including constructive criticism. **

**To all who viewed my previous story, welcome back! To those who have not seen my first story, please look for "Portal: Carthage's Story" and give it a read-through.**

**Onward with the Chapter!**

* * *

_Heavy breathing filtered through the chamber's path, the sound of feet rapidly hitting the paneled floor echoing not too far behind. A dim blue light gradually grew closer and brighter until the source was revealed—a large kind of gun that didn't look like any conventional gun used in the world being held in a pair of hands. The figure holding the gun glistened with a fresh layer of sweat, chest heaving from the heavy exertion of energy as it ran, stumbling slightly as it turned swiftly to the right and continued to move with all haste down the path now in front of it, a bright light at the end of the path motivating the figure to run at full strength despite the lack of oxygen it was now receiving._

_Emerging into the light, the figure shielded its eyes with its left hand while holding onto the gun with its right, the light revealing the figure to be a woman with slightly pale skin, short black hair and wearing a white jumpsuit sporting the Aperture Science logo, orange cargo shorts and white boots that had a metal attachment shaped like the back of a foot placed behind the sole. It took a second for the woman's eyes to adjust from the dark chamber to the brightness of…wherever THIS place was, but a sound from what seemed like a speaker reached her ears quickly—it sounded like a female voice auto tuned to match a robotic pitch._

_"Well, it seems that you were able to complete the previous chamber without any serious harm being done to you. I would commend you on this achievement, but the factor of your extensive weight misdistribution shown on your record cancels out any positive feedback I would give you. I am left with only this to say; Continue testing."_

_The woman glared swiftly at a camera mounted on one of the walls next to her before using the gun to shooting what looked like a blue ring of flame at a nearby wall and an orange ring of similar fire on a far-away wall crossing the bottomless gap in front of her. Once the two rings were placed they both opened to become portals, each showing the other's location. The woman went through the blue portal and emerged out of the orange one unharmed before heading to a nearby door showing an exit symbol. The door opened up when the woman stepped near it as a large group of red beams suddenly emerged into the woman's sight, freezing her in her tracks as her face blanched with the sight of several turrets pointed directly at her._

_"Target Acquired…"_

* * *

"GAAAAAHH!"

A male android body suddenly shot straight from a sleeping position as the scream of an adolescent male burst out of its mouth. The artificial human held its chest with both hands as it began to hyperventilate from stress and fear while its body shook from the same feelings. Its human eye dilated in the darkness of the bedroom it was in as its optic flashed white in worry and stress.

A few seconds after the scream had echoed around the small room, the door burst open as a female android rushed into the room, twin yellow eyes showing deep worry.

"_What's happened,_" the woman spoke with a auto-tuned voice now set to a high degree, "_Is something wrong?_" The male android's only response was to shiver as it bunched its body into a fetal position on its bed, making the woman's eyes narrow as it sat on the edge of the bed.

"_Come now, Carthage,_" she said in a motherly tone, "_Is it another of those nightmares?_"

"Give…give me a moment, GlaDOS…please..." Carthage then took a deep breath before rising back up to a sitting position facing GlaDOS's slightly angry expression.

"_If this is another nightmare, Carthage, I am not sure I will be as caring as the last six times you have worried me—these mental disturbances of yours have seriously inhibited your testing progress. I may have to resort to counseling methods in order to keep your higher mental states rational-_"

"Would you just SHUT UP?"

The sudden shout from Carthage caused GlaDOS to jump back off the bed with both surprise and anger showing on her chromed silver face. Carthage then took another deep breath before continuing.

"Sorry, it's just…what I saw in this one felt so _real_…like I was actually there, or something."

"_Many dreams are like this,_" GlaDOS carefully explained as she stood fully upright and offered a hand to Carthage, "_The human body's subconscious emotions are easily able to project imagery to humans in a deep state of sleep that can look and feel real. But they are just dreams, nothing to be concerned about._"

"Easy for YOU to say," Carthage responded as he grasped GlaDOS's hand and was pulled up off the bed to stand before the other android, "You don't have a human soul built into a partially-metallic body." GlaDOS winced visibly as that comment reached her audio speakers—did the boy have to bring _those_ memories back after so long?

"_Well,_" the female android concluded as she walked to the door and opened it quickly, sky-blue light reflecting from the outside halls, "_Since you are fully awake and at a…reasonable mental state, we can begin testing for the day. Orange and Blue have found some interesting gel concepts from the Abandoned Projects lab in the 1970's Aperture that I am quite intrigued in trying out…_"

A heavy sigh was Carthage's response before he said "Sure thing, be there in a few minutes." GlaDOS smiled warmly at her creation before stepping out into the halls, shutting the door behind her.

'_Something about that nightmare didn't feel right…it seemed too real to be just a dream,_' Carthage mused to himself as he walked over to the dresser table located to the left of his bed. Grabbing the Aperture Science Multi-Purpose Glove he always used in testing and slipping it over his right hand, Carthage shook his head to clear the dream from his mind.

'_GlaDOS said these dreams were caused by human emotions…so why do I get the feeling there's more to THIS dream then meets the eye?_"

[MULTI-PURPOSE GLOVE ACTIVATED]

Smiling slightly as the familiar surge of energy that came with the Glove's activation rippled through his body, Carthage opened the door to his bedroom and strode down the slightly lit hallway to the main testing hall, wondering what new and wild ideas GlaDOS had for him today.

* * *

**Well, that should be enough to get the story started. More will soon be on the way, so stay tuned. If you have any comments, ideas or thoughts on this story, don't hesitate to let me know (EXCEPT for Flames-those are not accepted here.)**

**Draconos is taking off!**


	2. Chapter 1: We have a Huge Discovery!

**Well, I said more material was on the way, so here you go! Here's the first main chapter of my story.  
DISCLAIMER! I do NOT own GlaDOS, Aperture Science, or any other material created by the Valve company (including the Portal games and Perpetual Testing Initiative). I DO own Carthage, the Function Disks, OlaTOS and the Lethal Military Androids (Some of these are from my previous story).**

**Onward to the Chapter!**

* * *

GlaDOS entered the main chamber with a grim expression set on her face. The boy—Carthage—wasn't supposed to be suffering from these visions, not from the way she had designed him when she had rescued him from death. Could this be another miscalculation due to the presence of a human soul in a machine body? GlaDOS had learned from her experiences 10 years ago that she couldn't remove any idea from her mind, no matter how crazy it might sound at first glance. Now, as GlaDOS stood in the central part of the chamber and activated a display of digital screens in front of her, she wondered if she would really have to take up counseling methods to keep her adopted son in a sane state. She quickly put that thought aside for now, though, as she designed a testing chamber that could incorporate the new gel she had discovered—a purple colored Adhesion Gel—along with a couple of additional testing instruments.

Constructing chambers now was a breeze—10 years of work and discovery between Carthage and herself had allowed them both to speed up the creation process exponentially. Now, all she had to do to make a chamber was select a base layout, add the new testing element along with a few already-used testing elements that complemented the build of the new material, and place the pieces accordingly. She had done this so many times now that it was almost instinct for her to construct multiple chambers complementing one new material.

A thought appeared in her mind that this could be like a game, in how she would design the chambers in order to make her subject solve them in different ways. The thought made her stop in placing an Aerial Faith Plate in the chamber and wonder—did she really want to think the science she would gain from these tests would be used for entertainment purposes only?

"_If that were the case,_" GlaDOS muttered to herself as she resumed creating the chamber, "_I would have gotten bored a LONG time ago._"

Just as she finished shifting the last panel, a blip at the entrance of the just-created chamber showed on her screen; this meant Carthage was ready to begin and was waiting for the door to open. However, there was one procedure the boy would have to go through before he could begin testing…

* * *

Carthage sighed to himself as he exited the elevator into the testing hall—why are these nightmares causing him so much stress? This most recent one had been one of the scariest and realistic, and this being the seventh one in the past few weeks was making him quite worried about his mental state. He was so focused on this thought, he didn't notice that the hallway he was in looked different than what he normally saw; until, of course, he looked around.

Instead of seeing the regular entrance door, the hall Carthage was now in was a single room containing the normal white panel scheme and gray paneled floor. There was nothing special that could be detected—save for a circular image of the Aperture Science logo expanded in the center of the paneled floor so that a human could stand in the center of the logo and be completely surrounded by the eight pieces of the image without having bodily contact with them. Carthage blinked his human eye a couple of times at this sight—he hadn't seen anything like this before—no, wait, he _had_, but in a seemingly abandoned idea he had once told GlaDOS on a whim.

"_I am presuming that your pausing is caused by the image you see on the paneled floor below you,_" GlaDOS then spoke to the fellow android, her voice echoing slightly in the size of the room. Carthage only nodded, his eyes not leaving the image; it was sketched in a perfect symmetry to the regular logo, only enlarged by about three times. Could this be an idea he had thought up long before coming to life…?

"_This, dear testing subject, is the result of our combined work into a mobile equipping station. This is the Aperture Science Mobile Testing Armory, MTA for short._"

As GlaDOS finished that sentence, Carthage jumped with joy and pumped his fists—it was he who had thought up this concept about 2 years ago, to which GlaDOS had first responded that it would be impossible to achieve. Yet now his idea was realized and he was about to see it work firsthand. The male android could barely hold his excitement as he dashed inside the enlarged logo and stopped at the center, a grin of excitement plastered on his face.

Several _whirrs_ of hydraulics sounded off as the sections of the logo rose up from the floor to reveal small containers inside bulletproof glass. Each container held a specific item between two magnetic claspers that kept the object in place without damaging it. Each container held only one item, but each item was different—such as the first two containers Carthage saw to his front; each contained a firearm, the one on his left wielding a modified double-barrel shotgun while the one on his right held twin pistols with rapid-fire chambers. Carthage looked behind him and saw the container directly behind him held the familiar gray color of the Spider-Limb Function Disk as well as a container showing what looked like a headpiece with a scanner that went over the wielder's left eye.

'_Wonder how these items will help me in this test,_' Carthage thought to himself as he looked at the other containers, '_but exactly what am I testing again, anyways?_" 

"_Please equip the items given by the Mobile Testing Armory,_" GlaDOS announced, "_Each item will be needed to complete the test, and loosing an item will be a severe draw-_"

The recording suddenly shorted out to audio garble as a tuning frequency blasted into Carthage's ears, making him stumble around while clasping his ears. He was lucky enough to avoid hitting any of the containers, though he didn't see the glass starting to vibrate from the force of the sound.

"_…Due to mandatory scheduled maintenance, the appropriate chamber for this testing sequence is no longer available…_" Carthage removed his hands from his ears as GlaDOS's voice came through again; except this voice sounded quite different than the one he had come to know, whether older or younger he wasn't sure.

"_…It has been replaced with a live-fire course designed for military androids._"

Carthage visibly paled on what human skin was on his face as this sentence reached his audio sensors—was this supposed to happen or was this some kind of trick GlaDOS made up to psyche him out? The boy soon put that thought aside as the containers began to open and release the materials inside.

A few minutes later, Carthage stood back at the elevator—there was no exit door from the room containing the Armory—equipped with all the materials provided—the headpiece fit snugly and the screen covered his human left eye perfectly. The shotgun was carried in a docile position in Carthage's hands, the pistols tucked into belt loops provided from a licensed Testing Utility Belt that fit snugly around his waist. The Spider-Limb Function Disk dimly glowed gray in Carthage's chest plate despite being deactivated, as did the wires connected in the pair of arm plates and leg guards that the remaining four containers had filled.

"I must admit, GlaDOS," Carthage admitted out loud as he boarded the elevator, "When you want something done, you do it in style."

But no response came from the speakers—an action that puzzled Carthage as much as why GlaDOS had sent that technical jargon his way. Perhaps she was trying to convey a message in secret…or could it be that she was elsewhere and that older version of her had been a recording? If that was the case, was this next chamber even what she _said_ it was, or was it an elaborate hoax designed to do…some other nefarious purpose?

'_One thing I've learned about GlaDOS over these last ten years of testing,_' Carthage muttered as he entered the elevator and the doors shut automatically, '_She always has a way of making testing subjects stay on their toes…_'

On reflex, Carthage looked down at his feet, which had been refined from the three-taloned limbs of the past into having three talons on the front and two on the back, splayed out when standing for maximum balance.

'_Or, in some cases,_" he then thought to himself, '_talons!_'

Chuckling at his witty joke, Carthage felt the elevator start to shake as it descended or ascended to the main testing area—which direction it was he could never really tell.

* * *

GlaDOS would have normally smirked at the idea of tricking Carthage like the way she just did with the prerecorded message, but the situation she had just been alerted to took her attention away from that matter.

"_This must be a prank,_" she spoke to herself as she brought the notice screen she had seen pop up as she finished setting up the Testing Armory to the center of her virtual display, moving the testing diagram to the side as the white exclamation mark showing on the screen reflected slightly in her optics, "_This can't be true. If someone had messed with the systems…no, who would have been there to mess with them? Then again, if it was left unattended, someone could have taken it…_" GlaDOS whipped the notice screen aside and called up a satellite diagram of the surface that covered most of North America. The image she got was hazy, but it was clear enough to show a blinking white dot in an otherwise mutli-colored landscape of mountains, some trees and lakebeds.

Zooming in on the location of the signal took some time, and GlaDOS stared at the slowly zooming image with her left hand covering her lips in a thinking posture as the scan continued to clear up, leaning back in the throne she was sitting in. No, not _her_ throne—this used to be OlaTOS's throne when she ruled Aperture and had sent her away all those years ago. She would have to make modifications; she put that memo in a separate file in the data stream as the satellite imagery continued to expand.

"_This isn't right,_" the android continued to speak to herself, "_That signal had turned off a few months ago, so why is it on now? Could it be an override, or a manual activation? Did SHE discover how it works? No, she couldn't have…she IS only a human…but still…_"

If GlaDOS could sweat, she would have already made a puddle of salivated liquid around her human-like feet from pure stress and mental exertion. Her breathing quickened rapidly as the image sharpened to reveal a large city surrounded by a large area of slightly parched forest, a dried lakebed to the southwest of the city.

GlaDOS pushed the scanner even further into the city, and it soon began to reveal houses around the signal's location. It was almost there…

[ERROR!] [OUTSIDE FIREWALL DETECTED!] [ERROR!] [OUTSIDE FIREWALL DETECTED!] [EVASIVE ACTION RECO-]

GlaDOS didn't have time to react to this sudden burst of warning text before the entire virtual display shut down due to mandatory system protection. She _did_ react with a convulsion to the sudden "crash" of Aperture's system as her connection into Aperture's mainframe was affected by the automatic response. Her body jerked itself off of the throne and impacted a group of panels in the silver floor, wires connected to her back starting to disconnect and fly around sparking due to the sudden fall.

* * *

The thrum of energy that rippled through the entire facility was easily detected by Carthage as the elevator floor below him seemed to shake as if in an earthquake before the lights inside shut off with a _spritz_ of energy and a shower of sparks.

"GlaDOS…?" Carthage asked with a slightly terrified voice just after raising his arms to shield his face from the sparks, "What's going on here…?"

Complete silence was, again, the only response the male android got to his question. Carthage shivered in place despite the elevator not being cold, feeling the darkness starting to close around him as if to drag him away into the abyss that he figured was Old Aperture. He crouched down on the elevator floor, trying to shrink himself as small as possible in order to escape the encroaching blackness that wrapped him in itself.

Where was GlaDOS? Had something happened to her—was she in mortal danger? Did she need his help? Above all else, when would the systems turn on again-

At that moment, the lights snapped back on and the elevator resumed its descent to the testing chamber. It took three seconds for Carthage to open his human eye, his optic reactivating as well and detecting the change in light. It looked like everything was alright…

"_Wooooah,_" GlaDOS moaned as her voice came in through the speakers again, "_What happened? How long was I out? You alright down there?_"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. Just don't do anything like that again, it actually scared me for a moment."

"I _can't say I'm completely sorry for your feelings of fear; fear is a strong element in testing purposes and something to keep watch of. Glad I could be of help in that regard._"

"Oh, quit your rambling, 'Mom'. But seriously, though," Carthage asked as his expression changed from joking to worried, "What happened up there? Some kind of malfunction with the systems?"

Silence reigned supreme for a few seconds before GlaDOS spoke again; "_Nothing that you need to be concerned about, 'Son'. Please get to testing. Also, about that live-fire message—It was true. Good luck!_"

Carthage face palmed as the elevator doors opened into the first corridor of the chamber and he leveled his gun while chuckling to himself—she always had to end with a tone of superiority, didn't she?

* * *

_'Sir,' an seemingly alien voice spoke through a microphone that slightly muffled the sound, 'Should we investigate the outside disturbance?'_

_'Negative,' responded a resonating voice slightly muffled by the air filter that it spoke through, 'It was probably a random pattern signal sent by some genus with a computer science degree, or something like that. But if it happens again in the same area, get looking into it.'_

_'Very well, Sir,' the first voice spoke again, 'If it pleases you to know, the area that the disturbance originated from was Sector 17-JB5.'_

_'17-JB5? You mean the place with the abandoned shack and wheat fields?' The second voice almost shouted this question as the speaker jumped up in his chair, revealing it to be a male humanoid whose body was shadowed by the darkness around him. _

_'Yes sir-the spot with the rumored underground salt mine-turned-laboratory. Do you want me to send a reconnaissance squ-'_

_'NO!' the figure shouted, the air filter starting to screech his voice. The humanoid shook his head before continuing with a calmer voice; 'Don't do anything rash yet—I have a feeling that we may see more developments from that place in the near future. Besides, we don't want any OTHER outside sources catching on to our activities.'_

_'Understood, Sir. We'll keep you posted on our end. Recon Out.'_

_The humanoid sat back down in his chair, breathing heavily with satisfaction as his gloved hands clasped together before his face in the classic archenemy planning pose. It seemed something of value existed inside that old salt mine, and he would be damned if he didn't learn what was down there._

* * *

**And...I think we can cut it there for now. I hope you enjoyed the start of this story. **

**Again, if you have comments, ideas or constructive criticism, please let me know. Also, again, Flames are not allowed here; we are all writers on this site. **

**Draconos is taking off!**


	3. Chapter 2: The Stress of the Tests

**Hello again, travelers! I bring you the next chapter in my sequel story.  
If you have not already read my first story, entitled "Portal: Carthage's Story", please take a look at it-events/characters in that story come into play in this one.  
DISCLAIMER! I do not own Portal, Portal 2, Portal DLC, or any other of Valve's creations. I DO own Carthage, OlaTOS, Function Disks, Adhesion Gel (explained in this chapter).  
WARNING! WARNING! This chapter contains scenes of machine-like blood and a visual of a broken limb. Viewer discretion is advised.**

**Onward to the Chapter!**

* * *

A blast of gunfire resounded through the chamber as the last of a squad of Lethal Military Androids was defeated, clutching its chest plate where it had received a lethal shotgun bullet. As the machine fell to the chamber floor, Carthage jumped out from the cover a panel of bulletproof glass into a forward roll before standing up to his full height, scanner ablaze as he searched for more enemies to fight. Seeing none, the male android quickly stood upright, holding his shotgun with both hands as the smoke rose from the barrel. A _click_ of the trigger confirmed to Carthage the weapon was out of ammunition. Carthage sighed as he power walked down the rest of the corridor. He had been forced to use his shotgun more than he had wanted to against these squads of androids that GlaDOS had sent against him. A quick glance behind him revealed the whole squad of machines lying on the floor, each one sparking slightly because of the bullets they had received.

'_GlaDOS has already tested me enough on usage of firearms,_' Carthage thought as he rounded a bend at the end of the chamber,'_so why is she doing it again? Has she run out of ideas?_'

This question was answered with a sudden _whirr_ of hydraulics as the wall behind him suddenly closed without warning. Carthage was barely able to jump clear of the closing panels before they could rip parts of his body off. Breathing heavily due to surprise, a flash of white drew his attention down into the new chamber before him. Walking forward a few steps, he was able to see the full chamber in all of its glory.

This chamber seemed, at first, like nothing at all—a bottomless gap covered just about all of the space where a floor would be and there was nothing special on the walls for him to take notice of. The only thing of some interest was the exit door directly across the pit, with no portable surfaces near it. Was this chamber a fake, or was it not ready for his arrival?

A _sploosh_ of liquid reached Carthage's audio sensors before he was suddenly covered in a strange purple liquid. Gasping, the android stepped back quickly, coughing and spitting as much of the substance from his mouth as he could and trying to rub the rest of it off his human skin and metal plating. This activity took about three minutes to fully complete—during this time the liquid had continued to fall in the spot where Carthage was standing just before, a few particles landing closer than the main pool of liquid. Carthage raised an eyebrow in confusion as large globules of the liquid continued to fall before him—was _this_ the new gel substance GlaDOS had wanted him to test? If it was, he didn't know how he could test it—the chamber beyond had only a bottomless gap for a floor and the basic paneled wall structure. How could he cross when he didn't know how this gel would work?

_Vhoooommm…_

'_What the…?_'

Carthage's vision suddenly went white before returning to normal in a completely different location than before. Instead of a testing chamber, it looked like he was in a boiler room of some kind, with no portable surfaces around him. He looked down at his hands, and found an old model of the Handheld Portal Device held by his right hand. The device weighed down his hand, nothing like he Multi-Purpose Glove he used for testing.

The sound of splashing liquid directed his attention to what seemed like a curving waterfall of white gel spraying over a wall in front of him and outward onto the outside floor. Looking down at his feet, Carthage's first reaction was fear, and than confusion. Fear because his feet were shrouded in strange white boots with strange prongs in the back, confusion because the feet had no talons. A surge of worry ran through Carthage as this realization reached his mental processors—was this some kind of optical illusion or something? Looking at his hands, more emotions ran through Carthage as they realized they weren't his real hands—for one, they had the structure of a woman, and second, they weren't mechanical at all. Beginning to hyperventilate now from worry and fear, Carthage then looked around for anyone that could help him in this predicament, growing more worried about what was happening with each passing second as he saw no one nearby to speak to.

In despair, Carthage knelt on the floor, his hands covering his head as he began to shiver uncontrollably. How did he get here? Why was his body like this? Where the heck was he? How could he get back to where he was before?

"_What the heck do you think you're doing? We don't have time to worry about the lack of human presence! Now get up and get us out of here!_"

His eyes snapped open…that voice…it was so familiar to him. Raising his head, he looked at the edge of the Portal Device around his right hand. Attached to one of the three ends designed to keep the quantum energy of the device stable was a potato battery with a familiar yellow power core.

"…" Carthage opened his mouth to try and say the name of this construct, but no sound came out of his lips—or rather, the lips of whatever body he was in now. Shaking his head, Carthage felt a surge of energy fill his muscles. He wasn't alone here—he had GlaDOS by his side, and that was something that hadn't changed over the years of his time in Aperture Science. Steeling himself, Carthage then shot a blue portal into a pool of the white gel to his direct right before carefully getting an orange portal placed outside the wall on the outside pool of gel. Once on the other side of the wall, Carthage then redirected his orange portal to where the white gel sprayed onto the floor, resulting in him getting hit in the back by some splatters that sprayed over the wall onto him. Sidestepping out of the way, he then noticed how the flow of the gel remained curved when traveling through the portals. Taking about 3.5 more seconds to observe, he then changed the angle of the orange portal, spinning around on the heel of the boots to see the spray of gel had changed direction, now covering part of the wall with the gel as well as the floor before it. Nodding to himself, Carthage then angled the orange portal so that the gel sprayed at the bottom of a nearby pair of towers that had a small gap between them.

Gritting his teeth in focus at his next shot, Carthage fired a blue portal onto the freshly created pool of white gel…and jumped for joy when he saw the blue portal open and the gel spray onto the opposite wall, starting a noticeable pattern that he could use. Calming himself, Carthage quickly fired the blue portal onto the highest point the new spray of gel had made, watching with satisfaction as the white gel now sprayed even higher up the wall. Now he could escape this place and get back on track.

A few minutes later, Carthage had completed the pattern—the gel was placed at its highest point in that he could place a portal onto a high-placed catwalk that led further upward. Smiling at his accomplishment and that he was able to do it with his own determination and GlaDOS beside him, Carthage jumped through the portal…

_Vhooooommm…_

_'Well, at least you did SOMETHING right for a change, lunatic…_'

…And gasped as his vision turned white again before clearing back to the chamber where he was before. Looking over his body, Carthage found that it actually _was_ his body this time. He sighed in admiration, and then sucked in a breath as the last words GlaDOS had said in…_whatever_ that had been came back to him…

'_…you did SOMETHING right for a change, lunatic…_'

"Lunatic"…GlaDOS had never called him by that name before. Was that some designation GlaDOS had given someone else—another test subject perhaps? Or maybe someone special to GlaDOS...

Then it hit him—it had been given to that woman in his visions! Which meant that the puzzle he had just solved had been in _her_ body…

Carthage shivered as he recalled the feeling of being in a fully human body after so long. If that was another vision, why did it have to feel so realistic to him? Did these visions have some kind of meaning, some hidden purpose that he had to figure out himself?

Carthage looked back at the pool of purple gel before him, his mind still reeling from the vision he had just experienced. He wondered how that vision could help him—the main thing in the vision was using the gel to get to a previously unreachable surface.

Then, in a burst of mental energy that made him pump his right fist involuntarily, he got it; use the purple gel and spray it all over the walls of this chamber. Quickly shooting an orange portal onto the paneled piece of floor below the gel pool, Carthage fired a blue portal onto a random spot on the right wall and watched as the next ball of gel flew across the gap onto the opposite wall and spread over part of the wall. Exhaling in satisfaction, the male android continued this process on both walls until both sides were as covered as possible with purple gel.

"_Well, it seems you have figured out how to get the Adhesion Gel onto the walls before you,_" GlaDOS's voice rang out as soon as the final part of the wall was covered, "_Good job. The next part is, of course, how you will cross…_"

"Right," Carthage responded with a heavy trace of sarcasm, "That should be simple enough to accomplish."

After scratching his head for a moment, an odd idea hit Carthage's mental processors. Before his mechanical side could respond with a rebuttal, the male android already had initiated the plan. He stuck his left hand into the path of the falling balls of Adhesion Gel, wincing as the liquid made contact with the techno-organic skin of the limb. Once the hand was covered, Carthage quickly spun to his left and slammed the hand onto a paneled wall with a _THWACK_. After waiting a few seconds, Carthage then attempted to pull the hand away from the wall…and widened his human eye as his hand became fastened to the wall! No amount of tugging or pulling could break the hold the gel had on the metallic hand, and the physical strain that Carthage put onto the hand and corresponding wrist began to get dangerously high the more he struggled to break the hold. The android was forced to stop his tugging efforts before he ripped his hand clean off at the wrist. Sighing, Carthage felt that his plan wasn't working out as he had planned it to be. There had to be SOME way to break the Adhesion Gel's hold after he had immersed his hand in it. He can't have just trapped himself indefinitely by his own planning!

Reality, however, was quick to sink in; escape seemed nigh impossible. Still, it couldn't be _impossible_—if it were, than GlaDOS would have not put this item into the testing chamber without having _some_ way to solve it. Growling in frustration, Carthage put all of his reserve energy into one final pull against the cement-like purple gel, ignoring all warnings of physical stress and mental overload that flashed in his mind…

_CRACK!_

…And stopped short in surprise with a scream as his pain processor went into overdrive. Unbearable amounts of pain registered in his mechanical brain from his left hand and wrist, his human brain temporarily blacked out from the mental stress. The entire limb quickly locked in place to prevent further injury, but Carthage could already see the damage he had caused—his left hand had been partially ripped out of its corresponding wrist from the severe exertion of strength. Tears sprung into the android's human eye as clear oil began to leak out of the broken hand. Carthage couldn't believe that he had been so _stupid_—he should have known that something that sticks to surfaces of walls should not have been used this way. He felt like crying right then and there out of sheer humiliation and despair.

_HISSSS…_

A strange sound then reached Carthage's ears as he felt the gel's grip starting to loosen! A sharp look at his broken hand revealed that the leaking oil from his hand was counteracting against the gel's grip. Amazed, the android let his arm drop to his side once his left hand was released completely before looking at it closely. Part of the hand had been completely separated from the wrist, leaving some wires broken as well as the human bone snapped apart. The hand itself was bent at a rakish angle but still functioned moderately well. The clear oil was leaking at a moderate rate out of the open wound, and a pool of it was already starting to form on the paneled floor below him. Carthage then realized that he was bleeding out due to the broken hand and that he should solve the test as quickly as possible. But how could he get across without being stuck on the walls?

Then it hit him—it was a bizarre plan and GlaDOS would most certainly not approve of it if she knew what he was going to do. With a smirk, Carthage activated the Spider-Limb Function Disk, his body's center of weight instantly shifting to accommodate the mechanical arms and legs. Now standing on the four spider limbs while his regular limbs were about 3 inches off the ground, Carthage initiated the next stage of the process. Focusing his thoughts, he mentally commanded the spider limbs to separate from the human limbs. The command was accepted and the spider limbs fell limp and hung on Carthage's back, almost making him stumble backwards due to the extra weight. Recovering quickly, Carthage then mentally brought up his upper left spider limb and held it beneath his broken left hand. The oil from his hand slowly dripped onto the mechanical limb, forming a gelatin-like coating over the electromagnetic tip and giving it a shiny keen that looked nice in the chamber's light. Not waiting for the mixture to dry off, Carthage then quickly applied the same procedure to the other three Spider Limbs. Once all four limbs were covered, Carthage quickly re-synched the human and spider limbs together and raced forward into the main chamber. He took one look at the walls and how far they would go, took a hard gulp in order to gain courage and adrenal vapor into his body, and leapt towards the right wall with all eight limbs splayed out for maximum possible landing.

The nanoseconds seemed to slow down as Carthage slammed onto the gel-covered wall with a _THUD_, spider limbs scrabbling onto the wall as his human limbs tried to get a stable grip as well. The pain from Carthage's left hand registered sharply as the upper left Spider Limb began to flail uselessly about on the wall due to the corresponding limb being almost useless. It seemed three Spider Limbs alone wouldn't get him to stay on the wall, and every nanosecond counted.

'_I can't fail now!_' Carthage thought to himself as he slid further down the wall, "_My plan was so close to working! It HAS to work! It HAS TO!_'

And with that, Carthage slammed his spider limbs right through the gel and panels below him, pulling himself up along the wall in a surge of inhuman motion. Once he was higher up, Carthage then turned rapidly to his left and began to _run along the wall_! His Spider Limbs made rapid taps and pushes against the wall and rose up again before the gel could attach to them, the coating of his own machine oil making the points where the limbs touched the gel begin to disappear. The motion was so swift that an observer would just have seen a blurring spider-like creature racing across a purple wall faster than a real spider could ever move.

It took about 30 seconds—thirty hair-raising, back burning, pain-filled seconds for Carthage to get across the wall. Taking one final step to gain tension for the leap, Carthage then launched off the wall, all eight limbs splayed out again in order to land on the chamber exit. For a brief moment, a flashback popped up in his mind, a time when he was testing out this Function Disk for the first time while OlaTOS was in power. That felt so long ago…

…But there was no time for that now. Carthage felt a shudder run through his entire body as his upper body impacted the exit floor, leaving his lower body hanging uselessly over the bottomless pit. A new surge of pain hit Carthage's processors like an anvil to his head as his broken left hand began to snap further apart. The pressure was almost unbearable as Carthage's face took on a very humanlike expression of pain, his human eye fluttering as his optic began to shorten out. The two upper spider limbs began to scrape the paneled surface in hopes to get a hold, but Carthage saw the exit getting further and further away. He would fall over the edge any second now, and his limbs just didn't have the strength to get him over the edge.

Filled with fear, Carthage suddenly shouted a wordless battle cry as he savagely impaled his two lower Spider Limbs into the non-portable wall below him, ignoring all flashes of pain that occurred because of this action. Then, he raised his front Spider Limbs up over his head and slammed them down onto the panels with as much force as he could muster. The pain was now at a critical level, a piercing frequency emitting into Carthage's audio sensors and distracting him for a brief moment. Trying his best to focus on getting to the exit, Carthage pushed his front Spider Limbs further into the panels and drew his back Spider Limbs out of the wall below him. Then, in a move that would have made anyone other than GlaDOS stop and stare, Carthage bent his back limbs almost to his stomach before slamming them down in what could only be described as a frontal stab. The two limbs slammed into the paneled floor with a bit of grinding, allowing Carthage to then shift his weight forward and begin walking as normal on the paneled surface. He didn't go to far, though, before the pain in his body became too much to keep aside. He was fortunate enough, though, to stumble into the elevator and fall on his right arm before blacking out, his left hand hanging on by just a few wires and bone shards as the Spider Limbs automatically deactivated.

* * *

**And that should do it for now. I apologize if the flow of this chapter was not what you expected. Comments, reviews, suggestions and constructive criticism are all accepted. I also hope you are enjoying the story so far, there's more to come!**

**Draconos is taking off!**


	4. Chapter 3: Unidentified Mystery (Part 1)

**We meet again! It's good to post something new here for you all to enjoy. At least, I hope you are all enjoying it so far!**

**This may be the last chapter I will post for a couple of weeks because I will be going to the U.S. and preparing for (Gasp) COLLEGE! Yeah, so that will take some time out of my writing. Don't worry, though-I have plans for how the story will develop from here, I just have to get them down onto electronic paper for you all to see!**

**MESSAGE! MESSAGE! This chapter will contain a feeling of mystery/espionage/spy...stuff...yeah...Never tried this type of idea before and I am hoping it works out well with you all. If it dosen't, then please inform me on how I could improve it. **

**DISCLAIMER! I do NOT own Portal, Portal 2, any materials licensed in those games, the Valve Company and any other games they made. I DO own Carthage, OlaTOS, the Lethal Military Androids, the Function Disks, and the funny name in this chapter (see if you can find it!)**

**Onward to the Chapter!**

* * *

"_You know, you can be a REAL pain in the mental processors sometimes._"

This remark from GlaDOS emitted a heavy groan from Carthage as he fully reactivated on a medical table in a recently built infirmary. A white light took up most of his vision due to a large lamp placed above the table, but he could also see GlaDOS standing to his right with an easily detectable frown on her face. The fact that the female android stood with her arms crossed in a position of anger only strengthened her remark. The only other thing to take

"What exactly directed you to that development," Carthage asked in response as his vision came more into focus, "The fact I blacked out or the fact I broke my left hand?" As Carthage finished that sentence, he involuntarily twisted his left hand and was not too surprised to feel no pain from the previously broken limb.

"_The fact that you did such a dangerous and high-risk plan to complete an easy level testing chamber is what REALLY worries me,_" GlaDOS commented as she shifted from an angry position to a regular standing position, "_Not the fact on whether you broke something or not to complete the chamber._"

"Well, thanks a lot for caring about my physical health," Carthage countered as he flexed his other limbs to test their status while his mechanical processors analyzed his recovery progress, "I feel quite honored."

"_All jokes aside,_" GlaDOS continued as she pushed Carthage back down onto the table with her left hand and pointed at him with her right, "_You did a very human-like action out there that you should *NOT* have attempted. A suitable punishment must be given._"

"Punishment? For what, not following your plans to the exact letter? And on the topic of human-like actions, haven't you been learning human-based emotions for the past 10 years? And what about all your talk of the 'Human Soul'—was that of any importance to-"

"_You don't need to remind me of what I already know and what I have already told you,_" GlaDOS reprimanded with a sharp jab into Carthage's chest plate, "_And the amount of human soul you showed when using the Adhesion Gel was low-key at best. Honestly, the ideas you come up with sometimes…_"

"Can I blame my gut instincts, then," Carthage quickly questioned while standing off of the table and stumbling slightly before getting upright, "Can you at least give me that to call my own?"

"_I am quite sure that trusting a human digestive organ to make logical decisions for you is not a good choice of action._" GlaDOS tilted her head to the side as she spoke, her optics began to dilate as she tried to process what this 'Gut instinct' was.

"That was a figure of speech, GlaDOS! Haven't you heard that type of talk among humans before?" Carthage answered while tapping both sides of his head with his hands in the common human expression that said "Well, duh!"

"_Your actions are really confusing me on how your current mental state is—besides, it's high time I told you of your punishment, anyway._" At this, a row of panels that made part of the chamber's wall suddenly spilt apart to reveal a larger screen that quickly turned on and showed a play-by-play video of Carthage racing across the Adhesion Gel-covered wall of the chamber.

"_For your atrocious action, the resources I had to spend in order to repair your body to its fullest capacity, and not to forget the amount of stress and worry you put me through whilst repairing you, you are herby banished from the testing chambers for the minimum waiting period of one week._"

Carthage's jaw dropped at this—no testing for a whole _week_? Minimum? He couldn't believe GlaDOS would resort to so strong a punishment for one simple act that wasn't in her line of regulations. This was her limitation on how much freedom a test subject like himself could have when doing a test? It was just atrocious! The human part of Carthage raged at this attack on his freedom, and it showed by him sprouting a strong frown just after his jaw dropped.

"Well," Carthage asked after a few silent seconds, "What do you want me to do in the meantime?"

"_I have a few hundred paper files from the 1950's Abandoned Testing Records that need to be looked over…_"

Carthage only face palmed at the broad area of ideas his question had offered GlaDOS to exploit. He really COULD be idiotic at times…

If someone were to ask Carthage that day what he considered to be the most boring job in the world, they would have gotten the quick response of "Looking through old files of people that had no organizational skills or higher reasoning." For that was what the android was doing now in his private room, looking through stacks of paper files stored up to the brim in metal crates about 5 feet by 10 feet and placed in quickly forgotten storerooms aged with dust and grime. Or, at least, that's what Atlas and P-Body had told him when they had found the files a few months ago during an excursion underground. Speaking of, the two robots were on another roving mission in another sector of Old Aperture for more items—of GlaDOS the android didn't know much other than she was "working on something that requires *ABSOLUTE CONCENTRATION* to complete.

The android couldn't resist shaking his head at the levels of stupidity that was in some of these plans. Designs for new rocket models that would barely get off the ground if constructed; Turret designs that wouldn't stand on their own legs if applied; Long chat logs speaking of mental-altering devices and higher-level conspiracies; these were just a few things that the scientists of 1950's Aperture thought were planned for the future of their company. Carthage put the file in an ever-growing pile next to him as he reached into an overturned crate and got out the last file in the crate, blowing some dust off the top of a fading vanilla-colored folder. The title of the folder was hard to make out, but the words "SA-C6-9-5-FIN" were still visible in fading black ink.

Opening the folder, Carthage coughed as more dust entered his lungs and the crinkle of old paper reached his audio receptors. The folder was full of tightly-packed papers that were held together by what _looked_ to be mold but couldn't exactly be described as mold—indeed, it looked more like crusted blood than mold, which began to creep Carthage out a bit. When Carthage pulled the papers out he could barely separate them apart, the mold-like substance holding them together held fast by time. Carthage didn't want to rip the files apart in case they held important contents, but GlaDOS had said these were from the 1950's Aperture—a long time ago. Then again, Carthage's human side wanted to keep the memories of the past strong in his memory, such as the one that had been shown to him by Cave Johnson long before, back when OlaTOS was in control. Flipping through the pages in order to separate them seemed too long and tedious for the job no matter what GlaDOS had said, so Carthage went to the more direct method and sliced his hand through the many lines of paper in order to separate them apart. The action seemed to work as the single mass of fused papers split with a small _RIPPP_ into two smaller masses of fused paper. However, something falling out from the two piles caught Carthage's optic and he grabbed it in his right hand before it hit the carpeted floor. Putting the two piles of paper down on his bed for further study, Carthage drew the small item to his vision, revealing it to be an old sealed envelope. Nothing was written or drawn on its clean white surface, but the edges of the envelope had turned brown and crinkly due to the time it had spent in storage. On impulse, Carthage felt along the envelope and was surprised to feel that something was inside this old piece of sealed paper. It wouldn't be too hard to open…but then again, this was just one envelope in a possible million that this crate alone held: why would it be so important?

It was here that Carthage felt a mental clash going on his head—his human side wanted to open the envelope and see what was inside for the sake of curiosity, but his machine side wanted to just forget about it and stick to the job he was assigned to do. The feeling of one thought after another racing through Carthage's head caused him to get a small headache as both sides didn't let up in their argument. It was if Carthage was sitting as an audience member to a debate in a courtroom, except the 'courtroom' was in his head and the debaters were the two sides of his brain. Worse, he couldn't speak his own mind to the debaters even if he wanted to, because that would sound like he was talking to himself and going crazy. Just as soon as he was going to talk out loud to the thoughts in his head, though, the headache vanished as the two parts of his brain came to an agreement. Carthage then understood that both parts of his brain wanted to learn more about what was inside the envelope—his human side would regret NOT opening it while his machine side wanted to just set the problem aside and get back to his main job. With these thoughts reverberating through his head, Carthage held the envelope in his left hand and carefully tore the top off the paper with his right hand. When the top was removed, Carthage tipped the envelope over and gave it a few shakes to dislodge the material inside. What fell out was a small ID card that glinted slightly in the dim lamplight of the room. Picking the card up while tossing the broken envelope in the direction of the pile of other folders, Carthage noticed a scientist's photo and identification that revealed this scientist to be one of the lower level "Lab Boys" working under Cave Johnson.

It was the name, however, that caught Carthage's attention: Joshua "Josh" Lee. That name had been shown in a couple of other files in other folders the crate had contained—Carthage had only skimmed over them but the name, being so 1950's, stuck in his head. Intrigued, Carthage put the card back onto the bed and began opening all the folders he had looked through again in order to find the specific files that had mentioned the name of Joshua Lee.  
About an hour later, Carthage placed the last paper with Lee's name on it with a groan of anger—who knew that searching through this many files could be so darn _hard_? The sheer amount of work that had to be put into organizing _this_ many files with _this_ many papers began to overload Carthage's logical calculators—then again, Carthage's human side knew that humans could do impossible things given enough incentive. Focusing both sides of his brain on the issue at hand, Carthage put all the pieces in symmetrical order by date and saw that the papers were mostly journal entries written with what looked to be an old-fashioned typewriter. The entries themselves didn't seem like too much more than the ravings of one scientist among many other scientists locked in a close-quarters environment and working with dangerous materials on a daily basis.  
Carthage couldn't hold back a laugh as that thought fully processed itself—wasn't that daily life at Aperture Science anyway? And weren't the scientists supposed to be used to these kinds of risks? Then again, the vision he had seen of the 1970's Aperture DID show people disliking the way Cave Johnson was treating his employees.

'_But that was the 70's, not the 50's,_' Carthage's machine side popped in unexpectedly, '_Many things can change in the time span of 20 years._'

'_Maybe so,_' Carthage's human side responded with what felt like annoyance, '_but the human ideals have never changed as time went on. We all want the same things as we did in the past._'

'_Then answer me this: Have the human ideals helped evolve humankind over time, or have they made them sloppy and unable to take care of themselves?_'

"Oh, be quiet! Both of you!" Carthage shouted to silence the voices in his head. Fuming with anger and fear at the battle of words going on in his head, Carthage grabbed all the paper files together without care and turned to place them back in the crate, determined to forget the entire thing and just finish his work. In doing so, he felt a _ting_ on his left foot, and, looking down, he saw the same card from before had fallen to the floor, only this time the card showed its back side rather than its front.

What was on that side of that card made Carthage turn around and put the papers right back onto the bed before scooping up the card with as much care as the poorest human in the world would hold a single gold coin. The rear side of the card was silver in color and was carefully divided into three sections. The biggest section, covering the left side, showed a carefully etched symbol similar to the 1950's Aperture Innovators logo, except that the nucleus model was highlighted over the outer circle in the background and three points on the nucleus were highlighted to form an equilateral triangle. The triangle itself was filled with the image of a large eye that had the slit of a cat and an overall menacing gaze. It seemed so vivid that Carthage felt the eye could blink or start gazing around itself at any moment. Below this piece of art were the words "Atomic Eye" etched deep into the card—a name that just _screamed_ the 1950's if nothing else Carthage had read did. Carthage stared in amazement at the symbol—if this Joshua Lee had been so talented in art surely he would have told someone about it to gain recognition. After gazing at the symbol for a few more seconds, Carthage then looked at the other sections of the card. The upper right section had only one line of wording that said "C12-F9-S1-10"—some kind of code, perhaps? The lower right section had something similar in wording, but with a part from what seemed like the old Holy Bible: "1 Kings 18:24", and, below that the phrase "Seek the answer by fire"

Carthage sat back down on the bed and looked at the phrase on the card again. What did it mean? How could he get fire to find an answer for him, and what should be lit on fire to get the answer? For that matter, what was the answer he was looking for?

Carthage rubbed his head in wonder at what he had possibly uncovered—this would require more investigation, but what he saw in front of him could be part of a secret conspiracy in Aperture Science's 1950 employees against Cave Johnson. Many questions raced through Carthage's head as he put the rest of the folders and the torn envelope back into the crate from where they had come before slipping the papers and the card under his bedside table to avoid anyone else finding them. Just as Carthage shut the lid on the crate he heard a knock on the door to his chamber.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"It's P-Body," came a metallic-sounding voice from the other side of the door, "Atlas and I have another crate of files for you to look at when you are ready. It's the last one of the set."

"Bring it in," Carthage spoke with a forced tone of resignation despite the excitement he felt at this discovery, "I'm done with this crate anyway."

The door then opened as P-Body and Atlas entered the room with a large cart between them, P-Body in the front and Atlas at the back. The two robots looked as if they were straining under the crate's weight, the box itself barely fitting through the chamber door. The robots brought it to the center of the chamber before lifting it up together and dropping it with a mild _thump_ onto the floor. They then went to the other crate to pick it up and bring it back to storage.

"Hold on, guys" Carthage interrupted while pointing at the crate that read "C11", "Is this the final crate in the storage chamber? One of the files spoke of a twelfth crate as well."

"Well, there IS a twelfth crate that we found and brought up," Atlas responded with a bored tone in his chromed voice, "but all that's inside are old tapes used in the 1950's. What's more, just about all of them are broken beyond repair." As he finished, Atlas tapped the deposited crate while P-Body started picking up the old crate.

"You sure you want to spend even MORE time looking through files, Carthage?" P-Body asked with worry in her voice and in her orange optic as she bent down to pick up one side of the old crate, "I thought you didn't want to do this job. You certainly complained enough when you got started."

"Don't remind me," Carthage partially moaned as the memory came back to him in a flash, "However, I don't want GlaDOS to think I cheated on my work and skipped a crate containing possibly-valuable information of the past. Besides, I guess this job kind of…grows on you." Atlas's optic widened a bit at this in surprise while P-Body's optic turned upward in the classic human expression of laughter.

"Well then," P-Body finished as she signaled Atlas to help her pick up the old crate, "don't let us keep you from your dutiful job. We'll be in the main hall if you need us—GlaDOS may have more tasks for you when you are done with this." Carthage lowered his head in grief as the two robots lifted the crate and placed it onto the cart before moving out of the room, leaving Carthage alone again with the crate of tapes. Sighing at the fib he gave to the two beings he considered friends, Carthage opened the new crate and began looking through it.

The robots had been right—the whole crate was full of tape reels, most of which were black and rusted from lack of use. All it took were quick glances to see the tapes were completely decrepit and would never play on any cassette or tape player. Slowly, as Carthage saw more and more ruined reels of audio tape, he felt his anger increase until it came close to boiling point. The machine side of his brain wanted to finish this assignment up so that it could be marked as complete while the human side wanted to scour every inch of the crate for anything connected to the whereabouts of Mr. Joshua Lee. Feeling another headache coming on, Carthage began to throw the reels out of the crate without any regard of damage done to the ancient film inside. The pile of reels only grew and grew until there were no more reels left in the crate. Even the reels at the bottom had been damaged with time, though not as much as the ones on top. In desperation, Carthage tipped the empty crate over onto its side, crawled inside the crate and felt all along the inside for something else. His fingers tapped against the crate's strengthened wooden surface again and again in vain.

_Tap…Tap…Tap…Tick_

Wait…_tick_? That wasn't what wood sounded like. Sensing something big, Carthage tapped harder against that spot on the crate and heard more _tinks_ in response. Carthage then scratched the surface of that area and leaned back in surprise as the wood there _broke off_ to reveal a false wall! The wood, being frailer in that spot because of the _tinks_, broke apart completely and a large metal object fell into Carthage's hands. Crawling back out of the crate and saw that he held an old black suitcase that was staggeringly heavy and hard for something its size. Metal flaps kept the contents of the crate hidden from any onlookers, but the flaps themselves looked rusted with time. However, three locks were also attached to the baggage, each lock having its own five-digit combination entry. Carthage groaned—it could take _days_ for him to figure out the correct code for each lock and open the case.

Still, the things he had discovered during this previously annoying assignment were something that sparked his interest exponentially. It would take probably take some time before he could fully unlock the secrets inside the case, but he felt the end result would be worth it.

The only thing to do now is to start looking…

* * *

**That's all for now! Again, I will be away for a while, so the next chapter will probably be delayed. Do not fear, however: it will be brought to your viewing pleasure eventually!  
Also, if you have ideas, comments, constructive criticism or just plain liking/disliking you want to give to me, send it in. I feel that the more people help on this story the better it becomes.  
Or you could just R&R (Read & Review)...up to you!**

**Draconos is taking off! **


	5. Chapter 4: CodeCracker, 1950 (Part 2)

**I RETURN! (Breathes flame into the sky to release stress)**

**Well, its been interesting adapting to a new country for these few weeks. I have had a lot of time to think and write but not to post (no Internet connection). **

**There is a special offer today-TWO chapters for the price of one! That's right, for your viewing pleasure I have planned two chapters for you to read. Double your refreshment, or however that went.**

**DISCLAIMER! I do not own Portal, Portal 2, Half Life, Half-Life 2 or any other games developed by Valve. I DO own Carthage, OlaTOS, the LMA's, the Function Disks and Joshua Lee.**

**Onward to the Chapter!**

* * *

'This is SO not in the protocol…'

At least, that's what Carthage thought as he entered his private bedroom after attempting to reconcile with GlaDOS. The female android had reacted with hostility to his request to search the records of the Archives Chamber and had even gone so far as to increase his period of banishment by two more weeks for taking such an action.

"_Your punishment is on equal measurement to the actions you committed in your previous test,_" the female ruler of Aperture had scolded him when he had questioned the increase of his punishment time. "_That you would want to get yourself into *MORE* danger by continuing to look for things that are above your level of skill is the exact opposite of what you should be doing, which is sticking to your job and doing as you are told!_" GlaDOS had then remained silent despite Carthage's continuing questions, almost as if she had said too much in that one moment of anger.

"Alright, alright, I can see you're not willing to talk about it," Carthage concluded with a raise of his hands in a gesture of calm, "But I do have one request that does NOT relate to the testing punishment."

"_And that would be?_"

"A reference to the Christian Holy Bible; I want to learn more of how it interacted with the humans who read it and how it helped develop the Christian religion."

GlaDOS had stared at him for a few seconds after he had said this before suddenly whipping up a separate display screen and tapping a few on-screen buttons in order to access a certain file. She then seemed to absorb part of the virtual display into her right hand before opening her hand at Carthage and emitting a light-blue pulse of energy. The pulse hit Carthage in a matter of nanoseconds and it left a visual blue glow for about five seconds after impact. Carthage, hadn't been able to move as countless words filled his inner eye, words connecting to ancient texts and scriptures of Christianity.

"_There, done. Now, if you have nothing else to say, we should both get back to work._" Carthage had only nodded his head wordlessly and headed back to his bedroom to unload more crates.

Now, as Carthage sat on his bed and began trickling through the information GlaDOS had given him. His mental processors were now crammed with all the words of the Christian Bible—everything from the book of Genesis to Revelations could be accessed. There was so much information, in fact, that Carthage felt he would get a headache from just looking at it all. Shaking his head to dispel that thought, Carthage took out the employer card of Joshua Lee and looked at the back side again—more specifically, the Bible verse printed: "1 Kings 18: 24". Clearing through all the mental information still fresh in his mind, Carthage began to narrow down all the chapters and verses until he found the one he was looking for…

_It was almost as if he were traveling through the digital network—Carthage could actually see through his mind's eye as he scoured the new data files he had collected on the Bible. He swept through the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy, past Joshua and David, past David and Daniel, until he came to what he was looking for: The book of Kings and the Prophet Elijah. Each book was like a door into a wider room, almost like a testing chamber in a way. Steeling his resolve, Carthage opened the door to the book of Kings and stepped inside. _

_Or, rather, floated inside—as soon as Carthage's body entered the doorway he felt his body rise forward by an unseen force and guided down a predetermined path. He barely heard the door close behind him as his vision was filled with a thousand images of angered kings, parched lands and dried lakes. People were moaning for water while the king sat brooding in his castle. His wife tried to comfort him but he repelled her in rage. _

_Then the doors of the room opened to reveal a bearded man walking with a staff of wood almost as tall as him. He wore red and blue robes and the sandals he wore clacked on the room's floor as he approached the king. Carthage, floating to one side, noticed this man had a glint in his eye that did not fit someone of his age. _

_"Why have you come, Elijah," the king muttered in part anger and part annoyance as the man stopped a few feet from his throne," You are the worst troublemaker in Israel!" _

_"It is not me who is the troublemaker, King Ahab," the man named Elijah responded with a firm tone, "It is you!" _

_"What do you mean?" King Ahab responded, "For three years now it has not rained—the people are starving and you have done nothing to help them, even with the powers of your 'God' supposedly punishing us!"_

_"Now is not the time to discuss such things, oh King," Elijah said, "I ask you to bring the prophets of your god, Baal, and come to the mountain. I shall be there as well; there it will be decided who is the true God. Will you do this to help your people?"_

_The king stared at Elijah for a few seconds before responding with a firm "I will." Elijah then left the room and the king summoned his chief priests and told them of what he had heard._

_Just then, the scene turned pitch-black before reforming on what looked like the mountaintop Elijah had said. There were many people standing on the mountain, looking at two opposing sides at the top. On one side stood all the prophets and priests of the god Baal, and on the other, only Elijah. _

_"It is time to make a decision," Elijah called out to the peoples below, "You cannot worship Baal AND God. So, both the Prophets of Baal and I will make a sacrifice to our gods; the priests will sacrifice to Baal and I shall sacrifice to God. The god who answers by fire will be the one and true God."  
"What you say is good," the people responded…_

Suddenly it all cleared away. Carthage's mind returned to normal and he gasped suddenly as his vision was also returned to normal. His mind reeled with what he had just experienced, and what clues he had just uncovered.

"The god who answers by fire will be the one and true God…"

"Seek the answer by fire…"

Both these phrases ran through Carthage's mind in a constant loop of wonder and confusion. Then, these two verses flew at each other and exploded in a fiery burst that served to form a possible plan—use a heat source to reveal how to open the locks. But did that mean burning the locks open or lighting something else on fire to reveal a secret message or code? The possible outcomes that this idea had were so many and so ranged in application that Carthage didn't know what to do at first.

'Well, the messages are probably the best place to start,' Carthage thought to himself as he drew them out from where he had put them before, "Since these are the only physical source I have at the moment that gives me a good amount of info on who devised this trick."

Holding the first of the messages up to his bedside lamp to get a better look, Carthage read the entry with care, hoping to discern some form of message or verse inside.

"_To my dearest Martha,_

_If only you could be here to see what has happened in this company since I joined two months ago. We have been kept busy with many different projects that sound so farfetched at first glance that they must have come from the mind of an insane person. The biggest project on our list is some type of blue liquid called "Repulsion Gel", supposed to be used with a "Quantum Tunneling Device" in the Enrichment Spheres we use for testing.  
_

_Speaking of tests, the people that come here are some of the wealthiest people in the state, maybe even the country—strange thing is, the scientists and I never heard about any of them when we were on the surface. Funny how that works, isn't it? In any case, most of the subjects seem quite eager to advance the cause of science forward with these tests—I can't say the same for myself, since you know how I am with people watching me work! _

_ Give my regards to little Robert and I hope your life is as exciting up there as mine is down here. _

_All the best,_

_Joshua Lee_

'Well, THAT didn't help much,' Carthage's machine side thought for him as his eyes looked away from the message, 'This is just a simple notification letter written with the objective to please a probably-distressed Martha up on the surface.' Carthage sighed as he put the message onto the bed back side up to begin forming a stack.

It was then that he smelled something burning on the paper.

Snatching the paper up again, Carthage then dropped it as if it contained an infectious disease. On the back of the paper, not there before, was the symbol of the "Atomic Eye", along with a large letter "P" in the center. The image seemed to have been drawn onto the paper and then rendered invisible somehow, only becoming visible when a heat source had been applied to it long enough.  
"_Seek the answer by fire_…" Of course! This was the answer to the message on the card and the Bible verse!

Whipping out the next paper in the set, Carthage set it by the lamp, not bothering to read the message on the front as he hoped to see something hidden appear like before. Sure enough, after a minute of exposure to the lamp's heat, the paper began to smoke slightly, revealing the "Atomic Eye" symbol again as well as the letter "U" below it. Almost shouting with joy as he realized the secret would be uncovered, Carthage continued this process for the rest of the messages until 15 letters and "Atomic Eye" symbols had been revealed for him to see.

Putting the papers side-by-side with the hidden letters revealed, Carthage saw the following sentence come to place…

"PUSH THE EYE. JOSH"

_Push the Eye_? What did that imply? Was this the code or was there one of the symbols he had seen planted onto the messages and the employer card that he should press? Confused, Carthage sat back on his bed and racked both sides of his brain for the answer.

'This Joshua Smith must have hid something quite secret if he went to all the trouble to make these messages and codes,' Carthage thought as he looked at the paneled ceiling above him. Though he did know of the human viewpoint on the unknown and its desire to solve curious things, his machine side stated that the idea of all these messages, on a logical standpoint, was far too complicated and mysterious to consider trying to complete. It seemed too much like a wild goose chase for his machine-based emotions to care about. Closing his eyes as he felt his mental processors start to slow down due to increased activity earlier, Carthage wondered what exactly could have been so secret to protect that it needed 15 different pieces of paper in order to convey it to a reader.

Wait…15? _15!_ That was it! The message was 15 letters long, and the locks on the suitcase each had 5 digits, totaling to 15 in all. That HAD to be it! Cave Johnson help him, he had done it! He had solved the message!

In a surge of motion Carthage leaped off the bed, scattering the papers onto the floor in his rush to the suitcase. Once there, he started to flick through the locks and find the corresponding letters, stopping only briefly on whether to include the period in the locks before deciding to skip it. Once all the locks had been connected to the right letters, Carthage grabbed the first lock and gave it a firm pull. A _click_ resonated with gladness in his audio receptors as the lock opened easily. The second and third locks yielded the same way, and Carthage grabbed the now-unlocked suitcase lid and pulled it upward to reveal the contents inside.

The first thing he saw was a large layer of stuffing similar to human-era Styrofoam, some bits of it falling out of the suitcase because so much of it had been packed inside. Reaching through the stuffing, Carthage then felt something metallic and rectangular with two roundish tops. Putting both hands inside, Carthage then carefully pulled out the strange object…and nearly dropped it as he saw he now held an authentic reel-to-reel recorder in his hands. The device already had two reels placed inside, mostly undamaged due to the amount of measures taken to preserve this artifact. Carthage carefully placed the machine down, noticing the "Atomic Eye" symbol etched onto what looked like the "Play" button. Presuming this to be what "Push the Eye" meant, Carthage carefully placed the machine down on the floor before pressing the Eye with a shaking finger.

The reels began to turn, slowly at first, and then speeding up until words suddenly came into existence from the tape...

"_If you're hearing this message, then you have cracked my codes and found this recorder. I don't know how far in the future you live, but I hope not too many things have changed. _

_"I am Joshua Lee, one of the lab boys under Director Cave Johnson. I have proof that the top lab boys have developed secret two-way signaling devices that can work from incredible distances. I also know they have begun installing them inside the Testing Cubes we use without anyone else knowing. It would take too long for me to tell you the evidence, so I have hidden it inside Aperture's computer mainframe. The only way to access my proof is through a chip I've hidden in a Testing Cube—all you have to do to activate the chip is find the right wavelength for it. Don't worry about finding it, you'll figure it out; otherwise you wouldn't have tried to solve my codes. You've got guts, whoever you are, and that's what you need in life to get what you want. Good luck, and God bless._"

The message ended there, the recorder giving a faint hiss as it continued playing the reel. A few seconds later a SNAP made Carthage jump as the reels broke apart from the recorder, pieces of film flapping uselessly on the reels as the recorder sparked and shut down. The recorder seemed dead, and no amount of tapping or thumping from Carthage could turn it back on. Carthage said nothing as he put the now-broken recorder and the reels it came with back into the suitcase and shut the lid. His machine mind tried to process the contents of the recorded message Joshua Lee had left behind, including the snide comment about the 'gut instinct' required to find the proof this 1950's scientist had discovered. Could he even do it, considering so much had changed since then? Was the cube still around to find, hidden in a secret area of 1950's Aperture? Would GlaDOS allow him down there to find it? And when he found it, what type of "wavelength" would he have to find in order to find the code? For THAT matter, did the code even work anymore, or was the file deleted before now? Carthage felt another headache coming on as he put the suitcase back into the crate and stacked the other broken reels on top of it, shutting the crate lid before putting the papers with the secret letters underneath his bed. Once this was done, he fell onto his bed and shut his eyes, the excitement and stress before hitting back now in the form of lethargy and tiredness.

Tomorrow…tomorrow he would start searching for the code…not now. Now, he just needed to rest off all the stress from discovering these secrets from the past.

* * *

_GlaDOS slammed her right hand onto an armrest on her throne, staring with rage as a screen appeared before her with the words "ERROR—SEARCHING PROGRAM BLOCKED". This was the third time in a row that her efforts to find the exact location of the cube's signal were repelled by an external firewall. Who could be controlling so powerful a device that it could stop Aperture's programs in their tracks? GlaDOS wanted to give who or whatever controlled this program a strong lesson in manners, cracking her fists as she restarted the program for a fourth attempt to find the signal's exact location._

_She didn't care about anyone tracking down the signal she kept sending out—if anyone did find out, they would either be too scared to track it back to the source or they would be too preoccupied with other problems to care about it. Considering how the human race was doing on the surface these days, having invaded by an alien force about 10 years ago, it wasn't doing well enough to take notice of every single little detail that popped up on their radar. Besides, Aperture had some of the best computer systems to date in its mainframe, both from previous human design as well as specific "modifications" she had made over her time controlling the facility. _

_The search program began again, but GlaDOS wasn't focused on the outcome—she half-knew that it would turn out the same way as the other three attempts before it. Her mind was now switching its focus to other events, and first on that list was Carthage's punishment. She felt she had been harsh when he had spoken to her afterward she had given the punishment, but she also rationalized the degree of consequence was equal to the degree of illogical action Carthage had taken in that testing chamber with the Adhesion Gel. Then again, Carthage had human emotions inside him as well as machine logistics, so he would probably have felt some degree of shame or hostility towards his "mother" by now, but that was hard to determine..._

_Shaking her head to clear the mental cobwebs, GlaDOS then opened up a display of a new chamber area she had recently created that housed many pieces of old Aperture inside. From 1950's testing cubes to an authentic 2000's Handheld Portal Device brought from a previously occupied testing chamber, this chamber was to be an extension of the Archives Chamber, but instead of housing data it would display pieces of testing and mark a chronological evolution of Aperture's testing ideals over the decades. It would be the representation of a "museum", as the humans used to call it. Opening up sub-displays about each piece of the museum, GlaDOS began to build display cases using bulletproof glass and power tethers to hold the artifacts in place inside the case. As she did this, she kept the display of the search program in the rear of her vision—she didn't want to take any chances on if the program worked this time or not. _

_This museum would be glorious, and it would be as GlaDOS wanted to show Aperture's history to her "son". The truth would soon come out, and GlaDOS wanted to be ready for that time when it came around…_

* * *

**And that's enough for that chapter. Don't fret, though-another chapter will be posted within a short time span. **

**Remember to Read, Rate, Comment and Enjoy! Your continued viewing on BOTH my Portal stories has kept me confident in my writing, and I hope to keep this confidence strong as I continue writing this story.**

**Draconos is taking off!**


	6. Chapter 5: Central Confusion (Part 3)

**A dragon keeps his promises, and I have kept mine-this is the second chapter that I will upload after my period of resettlement, the two in the old 'one-two punch' combo.  
I hope all of you who are reading this are enjoying my story so far-your continued views on BOTH my Portal stories does give me good confidence to continue writing, like I said before.  
Also, if this 'Part' series is running too long, let me know-I have plans to finish it up in one or two chapters at most. Otherwise, read and enjoy.  
DISCLAIMER! I do not own Portal, Portal 2 or any other games produced by Valve. I DO own Carthage, OlaTOS, the LMA's, the Function Disks, Joshua Lee and the Central Museum.**

**Onward to the Chapter!**

* * *

"You want me to do WHAT after this test?"

This question came from a confused Carthage as he processed the request GlaDOS had just asked of him to do after he completed the test he was about to start—the final test of the day, in fact. He stared at one the cameras nearby in the entrance hall of the chamber with an expression mixed between confusion and interest.

"_I'll say it again for your human side to understand; I want you to come and observe my prototype plans for a museum of Aperture Science's testing materials. Do you need to know each material I hope to show in detail before you decide?_"

"Don't tempt me, GlaDOS," Carthage grunted with a swift glare to the camera as he pointed his right hand at the viewing device, "Let's get this test completed before you begin THAT explanation."

"_Yes,_" GlaDOS responded with what sounded like schoolgirl sarcasm, "_let's. After all, science must still be done regardless of how recent…mysteries…are going._"

Carthage blinked in surprise as he lowered his hand—what did GlaDOS mean by that? Did she know what he had discovered from Joshua Lee's message? Or maybe she had mysteries of her own that she wanted to solve, but was having trouble completing them? Carthage stared at the camera for a few more seconds despite knowing the device could not respond to his questions before turning his head away and stepping into the chamber's entrance hall.

This chamber contained a few noticeable things—a Pneumatic Excursion Funnel to the right of the entrance positioned high on a wall and with funnel pointing further forwards into the chamber beyond the reach of the floor, along with an Advanced Aerial Faith Plate set on the floor pointing towards the path of the Funnel. A Weighted Storage Cube was placed in a smaller room behind a bulletproof glass window with a small hole to provide a portal placement inside. Carthage walked over the end of the chamber floor and stared into a bottomless pit that extended to a nearby wall of…scientific lights or something like that. Feeling a draft of open air from his right, Carthage looked that way and saw a side platform containing a Heavy Duty Super Button and the chamber exit. But how could he get over there when the Funnel only went in one direction? He would just end up against the wall of 'scientific lights' and not be able to move anywhere without falling down the pit.

A sudden _whorp_ directed his vision upward to see a second Pneumatic Excursion Funnel was now active and pointing towards the exit. Seeing that he could now reach the exit, Carthage strode back to the first area and shot an orange portal through the gap in the window containing the cube before creating a blue portal on the adjacent wall. Walking in and getting the cube, Carthage then raced over to the Faith Plate while holding the cube in his hands. Taking a short breath before stepping on the plate, Carthage felt his muscles tense as he was catapulted into the funnel's path, the funnel absorbing him with a small _whiing_.

As soon as Carthage felt his body enter the funnel, he noticed the subtle change that always came with the funnel—how the sounds of everything outside the funnel were slightly muted and how his body was carried slowly forward in an almost peaceful way. The Funnel was one of Carthage's favorite testing elements due to the way it made gave someone inside a few moments to relax as they were guided by the Funnel. Carthage suddenly began to wonder how exactly the device had been adapted to produce this kind of wavelength-

He froze in place as that thought filtered through his processors—well, almost froze as the Funnel was still carrying him forward. Mr. Lee's message had said that, in order to activate the cube, Carthage had to find the right _wavelength_ for it, right? And wasn't this one of the best wavelength-producing devices in Aperture's testing arsenal? Then this should be what he needed to find the code from the chip inside the cube!

Carthage wanted to pump his fists and shout in jubilation but the Funnel's directing force prevented him from doing anything other than floating along its pathway. Carthage felt only a slight ripple across his body as the second Funnel picked him up and pushed him along its own path towards the exit. A few seconds later, Carthage forcefully fell out of the Funnel and onto the platform at the far end of the chamber, placing the Cube onto the Super Button and hearing the door open behind him. Ducking under the Funnel's path, Carthage then exited the chamber with a light step, feeling glad that he was one step closer to finding the clues he sought.

Surprisingly, there was no further testing chambers to complete once Carthage had handed back the materials he had used for the test; only the elevator awaited him, its doors already open as if expecting him, which it probably was. Carthage quickly got into the elevator and leaned back against the wall as his heartbeat increased slightly due to the happiness he felt inside him. He was one step closer to finding the truth about the codes—now all he had to do was to find the specific Weighted Storage Cube from the 1950's Aperture…

As soon as that thought entered Carthage's head, his body began to droop; He didn't know which specific cube to look for among the possibly _thousands_ of cubes that hadn't been brought up by Atlas and P-Body recently. What's more, Mr. Lee's message hadn't said anything about a symbol or something like that drawn onto the cube to make it more recognizable.

'_Then again,_' Carthage's machine side butted in, '_If he had done something like that then the Cube could have been found easier than he may have wanted it to be.'_ Carthage had to agree with this notion as the elevator stopped and the doors opened to reveal GlaDOS's main chamber. Stepping into the circular room, Carthage saw GlaDOS sitting in her throne and watching a play-by-play video of him in the last few test chambers—her usual activity after he completed a set of tests because she wanted to judge his improvement in the tests. It took a couple of seconds for GlaDOS to notice Carthage had arrived.

"_Ah, there you are,_" she then spoke as she closed the video, "_I presume the last few tests were to your satisfaction?_"

"The tests you make are designed to push my physical and mental capabilities to their fullest," Carthage replied as if he were reciting the words from a textbook, "So I would say they were pretty successful."

"_Good to hear,_" GlaDOS said, apparently not picking up on the sarcastic undertone Carthage had put into that sentence or just ignoring it altogether as she turned around and led Carthage towards a side-chamber he had not seen before, "_Now, as I started to say a few minutes ago, I have begun building what you humans would have called a 'museum' for Aperture's testing devices and how they have evolved over the decades. Even though I know my design is flawless, my human emotions beg the rating of a second person on my creation._"

GlaDOS then turned to Carthage and looked him over as if she were a doctor examining a patient before deciding what to do for a surgery before announcing "_You'll have to do,_" and opening the chamber doors with a wave of her hands before stepping inside, ignoring the grunt of annoyance emitted by Carthage as he followed.

* * *

The entire chamber seemed dark at first glance—Carthage could detect a holographic projector in the very center and several doors leading to side chambers, but nothing was lit except for the constant dim blue glow that the facility generated. He could hear GlaDOS's human-like feet walk a few steps before stopping and spinning around on her toes towards him. Her yellow optics were like two beacons in the dark room, shining with inhuman clarity and knowledge and yet maintaining a human style to them.

"_Welcome, Carthage,_" GlaDOS then announced as she lifted her hands toward the chamber ceiling, "_To the Central Museum of Aperture Science._"

As soon as GlaDOS had finished speaking, the entire chamber burst with white light as several hundred light emitters hidden between the panels activated at once. Carthage was blinded for a few seconds and shielded his human eye from light damage with his left hand. When he heard no other sounds and was sure they would be no other flashes, Carthage lowered his hand to see what had changed.

His jaw dropped fully unhinged. The entire chamber now shone sterile white and clean with non-portable surfaces, each of the doors he had seen before now lit up with one of the Aperture past logos, from the 1950's to the most modern. The holographic display in the center seemed activated now, flashing between the different Aperture logos in a continuous loop. The floor glowed with the reflection of the light on non-portable surface—so brightly, in fact, that Carthage could see his own reflection with amazing clarity, almost like he were looking at a mirror.

"_Welcome to the Central Museum of Aperture Science,_" the metallic voice of the official Announcer then…announced, "_We are proud that you have come to see this display of this company's technological and scientific developments. Please take your time in browsing the many items we have on display for you—all materials presented here are authentic and original from their own testing days. We hope you enjoy your time in this museum._"

With that, the Announcer shut off, leaving Carthage nodding his head in understanding—if this was the project GlaDOS had mentioned that she needed 'absolute concentration' on, then it sure showed in the results.

"_So,_" GlaDOS then asked with a gleam showing in her purple optics, "_Where do you want to go first?_"

Carthage didn't say anything for a few seconds as he looked at each door in turn, observing the logos imprinted before pointing at the 1950's Aperture Innovators door.

"_A wise choice,_" GlaDOS responded as she walked over to the door and pressed her hand onto the center of the atom model in the logo. The door then opened with a small _hiss_, lights inside the side-chamber snapping on instantly due to automated sensors. The two androids then stepped inside, and Carthage sucked in his breath as he took this new room in.

This room had a few restored pictures of Cave Johnson from the 1950's as well as a few newspaper articles from that time scattered across the walls—the walls and floor themselves were also authentic Enrichments Sphere material, making Carthage wonder exactly how GlaDOS had gathered all this material from so far down into Aperture. After tapping the floor below him with one taloned foot to make sure it was _really_ genuine, Carthage turned his attention to the articles on the walls while GlaDOS began walking around the room and checking each item in turn for damage. One article spoke of Cave Johnson buying a large salt mine for a future shower curtain company; another one told of how Cave had developed said shower-curtain company and was expanding into gel-based dietary supplements. Carthage had to grin at this idea—considering what he knew now about Aperture and its testing products, it seems people back in the 50's were a very wild bunch striving to achieve the impossible. In the center of the side-chamber were four bulletproof glass display cases in a square formation, each case holding an authentic Aperture Innovators testing product by two strong cables; A Quantum Tunneling Device, Weighted Testing Cube and Button Switch were each held in place, as well as a solidified ball of Repulsion Gel.

"_This is the 1950's section of the museum,_" GlaDOS then explained as she stood next to Carthage and looked at the same four devices, "_We have recovered these artifacts of testing from the deepest levels of Aperture and have restored them to their former glowing condition._" So much pride and self-pleasure was in that sentence that Carthage raised an eyebrow and looked at GlaDOS with an unsure expression, confused by what GlaDOS meant by what she had just said. Did she mean that she really cared about these old testing materials or did she only want them shown to document the greatness of her company—and herself?

The two androids stood there for a few more seconds before GlaDOS spun on her heel and headed for the door. Carthage followed, but stopped just before he left the door. Something in his gut said that he shouldn't leave just yet, that if he were to leave now he would never get the answers he secretly wanted. Frowning at this new feeling, Carthage stepped back inside the lit chamber and headed back toward the four devices positioned in the center, his frown only deepening with every step he took.

"_What are you doing?_" GlaDOS sounded surprised that Carthage had headed back into the chamber after he had seen it already. Carthage didn't answer, but he walked around the cube a few times, his optic flickering as his human eye squinted like he was gazing at the sun without any protection. Then, when his back was to her, he stopped suddenly as if paralyzed. His head turned from side to side a few times as if he were trying to interpret something before he stepped back suddenly in alarm, his hands rising slightly in what _seemed_ like a frightened expression.

GlaDOS strode back into the chamber and grabbed Carthage's right shoulder with a firm grasp. She could feel the android jump in fear, a gasp of shock emerging unbidden from his lips. GlaDOS frowned inside—was something wrong with him—well, something that she didn't _know_ was wrong with him? Were those "nightmares" he had mentioned a week ago now becoming a serious threat to his sanity? GlaDOS felt her digestive processing unit begin to overheat in worry—she did not like the feeling of something happening without her authorization, and this was getting close to one of those things.

"Where…" Carthage then asked with a shaky voice, shuddering slightly under GlaDOS's firm hold and raising his left hand at the Weighted Testing Cube inside its case, "Where did you get that?"

"_I told you,_" the female android responded with a huff of annoyance, "_They were found in the bottom part of Aperture, amidst the still-functional Enrichment Spheres down there. Why, do you want to look for more?_" GlaDOS asked that question with a sarcastic tone, expecting Carthage to shake his head and recover from…whatever was happening to him.

"No, GlaDOS," Carthage answered with a bowed head before he suddenly broke free from GlaDOS's hold and outlined one side of the cube with one hand, "I want to know why THAT symbol is there!"

GlaDOS stared at the cube for a few silent seconds before blinking in surprise and worry.

"_What symbol do you mean?_" GlaDOS asked with deep concern in her eyes and voice, "_I don't see anything out of the ordinary._"

"Are…are you serious?" Carthage began to breathe heavily as his eye widened, "You don't see ANYTHING there?"

"_No, I don't see anything strange on this cube. If this is some kind of joke-_"

"YOU THINK THIS IS A PRANK!?" Carthage screamed suddenly, causing GlaDOS to jump back in surprise at the sudden outburst, "You…you…you don't understand what's going on, do you? No, you don't _care_ because it doesn't concern you in the least!" Carthage's human eye blinked as if he were having a seizure while his optic started shortening out due to the massive rise in anger.

"_I do *NOT* think this is a joke,_" GlaDOS shouted at about the same volume, convinced now that something was wrong with Carthage's mental processors, "_I only said that because it came to my mind due to that 'prank' I did on you back when we first tested the Testing Armory. Come now,_" she continued, opening her hands in a calming gesture as her expression changed to one of care, "_Tell me what's wrong with you so I can help you get through it unharmed._"

Carthage just stared at GlaDOS, his human eye not blinking at all as his optic began to flash yellow—it looked like he was having a mental breakdown from some unknown circumstance. GlaDOS held her position with her hands open, hoping against hope that her 'child' would tell her what was happening to him.

"No…you can't help me."

GlaDOS's optics shorted for a moment—WHAT did Carthage just say?

"You can't help me because you don't understand the source of the problem."

GlaDOS opened her mouth to object but closed it as she saw Carthage's expression return to a normal look, his eye blinking again as his optic stopped its flashing.

"Forget about this, GlaDOS," Carthage spoke to GlaDOS with a voice quite similar in tone to her own, "It doesn't matter anymore." With that, Carthage left the chamber without looking back, GlaDOS trailing behind whilst racking her mental archives to figure out just WHAT was affecting her 'child' like this.

An unregistered amount of time later, GlaDOS and Carthage stood again in the central camber of the museum, having seen all of the exhibits the museum had to offer.

"_So, Carthage,_" GlaDOS asked with caution in her voice, "_How did you find the Central Museum?_"

"It's fine, GlaDOS—I was quite fascinated by what you had to offer. You even got the courage to put up a section of Wheatley and OlaTOS in the most modern section." Carthage chuckled at this—that part of the exhibit seemed purposefully small because they had humiliated GlaDOS during her time in Aperture.

"_That required a lot of energy to put together, you know._" Carthage rolled his human eye at this and grinned good-heartedly in response, to which GlaDOS huffed before leading them both back to the throne room.

"_Well, that's what I have so far,_" GlaDOS concluded as she headed back to her throne, "_I believe you have seen enough of it to be satisfied, correct?_" Carthage only nodded in response.

"_Very well. You are allowed to return to your private chamber to enter your resting period. I shall awake you when I have prepared the next set of testing chambers._"

"Just one moment," Carthage spoke in with a raised hand, "I've been wondering if YOU ever sleep as well? Even though you are a machine, don't they have a 'recharge period' or something like that?"

GlaDOS glared at Carthage as she sat back on her throne before she muttered "_You've GOT to be kidding me._"

"_I DO have a recharge period, but I keep the entire testing systems on autopilot so that no one can sneak around without my noticing. Is that enough for you?_"

"It'll do…" With that, Carthage bowed slightly in a gesture of thanks and jogged back to his chambers. GlaDOS watched him go with a sigh of amusement, but quickly set her expression before she activated the virtual display before her and opened the logs in the Archives Chamber to enter a new file into the network.

She didn't see a flash of insane determination in Carthage's eye…

* * *

_A few hours later, GlaDOS finished her final entry into the journal. Breathing out the tension in her arms, she closed the displays and opened one final screen to activate the autopilot system for the facility._

_GlaDOS hadn't been entirely true with Carthage when he had asked about this program—it did use the camera she had placed in the facility to keep watch of the testing chambers against invaders. However, this program also had a few…special creations of hers on standby in case any SERIOUS threats got into the facility. Nothing serious had required them, but she had made them just in case of some terrible catastrophe happened. _

_GlaDOS then leaned back in her throne, keeping her body rigid as her processors shut down for her 'recharge period'. When it was done, her optics were closed, her head and back kept straight and her arms placed on the armrests as if she were a part of the throne itself. The purple lines of energy that were between her body-plates went gray as the facility gave an almost unnoticeable rumble due to the transfer of power. The cameras shorted out for a brief second before reactivating and beginning their new vigil. _

_Not one of them saw a figure emerge from a private chamber and race down the halls toward the Central Museum…_

* * *

**And that will do it for this part! Again, if this series of chapters is too long, let me know so I can end it quicker. **

**Remember to Read, Rate, Comment and Enjoy! If you have ANY questions, comments or criticisms (constructive ones are best), feel free to tell me in a review or a message. After all, I'm posting this for your enjoyment, right? (grins)**

**Draconos is taking off!**


	7. Chapter 6: IT has arrived (Part 4)

**Welcome back! Today we have a new chapter for you to read. This is another chapter in this "Part" series of chapters. Once again I ask, if this chapter series is becoming too long or confusing, please let me know so that I can improve it for you all.  
The past few weeks have shown me working hard to get ready for the college life-its coming in less than a week on the day I post this chapter.**

MESSAGE! This chapter has many POV (points of view) switches in it-I have attempted to separate the changes in view with line breaks. If this process or style of writing is too confusing for you, please let me know.

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Portal, Portal 2, characters/items/locations in those games or any other games Valve has developed. I DO own Carthage, OlaTOS, the LMA's, Joshua Lee, the Function Disks, the Testing Armory and anything else mentioned in my story not shown in Portal games.**

**Onward to the Chapter!**

* * *

If a room were built for Aperture's camera autopilot program, it probably would consist of a large circular wall of screens going around a single chair positioned in the center of them all. Since there wasn't such a room, however, the autopilot system tracked each camera individually and constantly flipped through each one as if it were flipping through television channels faster than a human could blink an eye. Nothing unusual showed on the screens, whether on the testing chambers, the Archives Chamber, the Central Throne Room, the Central Museum and the Private Chambers.

That was just what _it_ wanted.

_It_ currently stood stock-still in the entrance to the Central Throne Room, seeming to gather _its_ energies for a big rush through the Throne Room to the adjacent Central Museum. _It_ quickly patted the Optical-Veil Function Disk in _its _chestplate, hoping that the device was working as it was supposed to—_it_ did _NOT_ want to get caught by anything or anyone when _it_ was so close to completing _its_ mission. Besides, having stolen this Function Disk a few days beforehand, _it_ would have been severely punished if _it_ were caught for unauthorized usage of a licensed testing product—or, that's what SHE would proclaim if _it_ were caught in her vile clutches.

A few seconds later, _it_ raced through the opening panels of the Central Throne Room, casting a worried glance at the immobile android in the center for fear that _SHE_ would awaken. She did not stir, leading _it_ to crack a smile and approach the Central Museum entrance, drawing a taser "liberated" from the Testing Armory as _it_ reached there.

Opening the entrance was dead easy—_it_ had seen GlaDOS open the paneled wall beforehand and memorized the procedure instantly. Once the wall was open, _it_ dashed inside, the paneled wall closing silently behind _its_ presence.

"_Welcome to the Aperture Science Central Muse-_" the announcer began as the museum lit up automatically, but it was stopped by a taser being stabbed into the holographic projector. The announcer emitted some computer gibberish before it shut off completely, _it_ starting to worry of being detected because of the noise. Even though _it_ had the Optical Veil Function Disk to shield _itself_ from the cameras, _it_ wanted to make _its_ mission as stealthy as possible. With these thoughts in mind, _it_ entered the 1950's Aperture sub-chamber.

Once inside there, _it_ didn't waste any time looking around, heading straight toward the four displayed items inside bulletproof glass. The only item _it_ looked at longingly of these four was the Weighted Testing Cube, the light from the cube's case reflecting slightly on _its_ clean pale face and clear white eyes. A tongue licked dry lips as a hand fumbled inside a pocket before drawing out a light-brown Function Disk not used for many testing sessions—the Aperture Science Phase Suit Disk. Taking a silent breath, _it_ held the Phase Suit Disk in _its_ right hand as _its_ left hand grasped at the Optical Veil Function Disk in _its_ chestplate. Then _it_ jerked the Optical Veil Disk out and pushed the Phase Suit Disk in, _its_ inner eyes flashing and blurring because of the multiple diagrams flashing in _its_ mind.

As soon as _its_ body had turned to the immaterial state the Phase Suit provided, _it_ pressed _its_ hand against the Weighted Testing Cube's display case, shivering slightly as _its_ hand phased through the bulletproof glass like a ghost through walls. When _its_ hand was around the Testing Cube but not going through the device, _it_ deactivated the disk—_it_ then growled in pain as the glass of the case pierced_ its _hand and lower wrist before shattering due to the change in pressure. It was a miracle _it_ was able to hold on to the Testing Cube despite all the glass falling around _its_ limbs and causing possible damage to them.

"_Warning! Warning! Weighted Testing Cube Display Case destroyed! Unidentified presence detected! Deploying Lethal Military Androids…_"

The announcer spoke with a strange tone of finality in this statement as _it_ heard multiple _chinks_ of metallic feet entering the Central Museum. Cradling the cube in _its_ left arm, _it_ whirled toward the door as _it_ drew a small pistol and readied _itself_ for combat.

Silence reigned in the chamber for a few seconds, but the _hiss_ of the door opening followed by the _crack_ of multiple guns firing in sequence broke that serenity to bits. _It_ dived to one side, executing a superb forward roll while still holding onto the Cube before rising up and firing three shots at the androids with pinpoint accuracy. One of them fell backwards with a bullet in its head while two others grasped their hands as their weapons fell onto the floor. But more shots still rang out—the android number was only increasing the more time _it_ spent fighting them. _Its_ objective now was clear— dropping _its_ pistol onto the floor, _it_ suddenly sprinted towards the group of androids with superhuman speed, holding out the Cube in front of _itself_ to absorb any bullets directed at _it_. The androids, not expecting this reaction, delayed in their response by a few seconds, which was just what _it_ needed as _it_ drew _its_ right fist back whilst cradling the Cube in _its_ left hand, letting _its_ anger and rage against these machines take form as a red aura around _its_ right hand before _it_ swung at the closest one with a wordless scream.

* * *

_A burst of sound and energy emanated from the Central Museum, followed by multiple android bodies crashing onto the museum floor, guns clattering onto the floor or breaking on impact. Some androids quickly stood back up and grabbed functional weapons while others didn't move at all due to critical damage or power overloads from the impact._

_At least, that's what GlaDOS saw through a functional camera in the Central Museum._

_She had been awakened the moment the autopilot program had noticed that the Central Museum was threatened. Having summoned a virtual display in seconds, she saw the Lethal Military Androids deployed into the 1950's chamber from a nearby storage unit, guns firing at the intended threat inside. The scream she had heard before the androids were blown backwards was almost unknown to her—it seemed to identify human rage with a mechanical overload of sorts, if vocal cords could have such a symptom. The only time she had heard that before now was…_

_She seemed to pale, her face turning more white than its usual pale color—it couldn't be Carthage, could it? Then again, he was the only other android in this place that could exert such a human-based sound; Atlas and P-Body communicated in their own robotic language and no sound in their speaking came close to the human language she had heard over the generations she had been active. Fearing the worst, GlaDOS called up a display of Carthage's private chambers—a hidden camera placed inside a hidden in one wall revealed an immobile form under the bedcovers. GlaDOS sighed in obvious relief while turning back to the Museum display, intent on capturing this intruder to her home._

* * *

_It_ emerged into the Central Museum main chamber under cover of the Optical Veil Function Disk to avoid detection, the seemingly levitating Weighted Testing Cube being the only sign of its presence as _it_ raced out of the Museum entrance. The Lethal Military Androids that remained active rose up as quickly as they could and charged towards the entrance as well, guns at the ready and their objective being to protect GlaDOS from the intruder's harm. The target seemed to have already escaped—the Testing Cube was nowhere in sight despite being visible before.

Suddenly, one of the androids at the group's rear jerked as if having a seizure before falling to the ground as lightning coursed its metallic body. The other androids whipped around and fired several shots behind them, but in vain; _it_ had already dodged their attack and wall-jumped over their heads out into the Central Throne Room. The androids turned back towards the exit to find the paneled wall still open into the Throne Room, GlaDOS looking around herself to try and find the intruder in her throne room.

* * *

_Suddenly she saw the intruder—an android with a pale white face that rippled with liquid metal, shimmering gray eyes and what looked like a permanent smile etched onto its face appeared in front of her throne. Its body was hunched over slightly and its right hand wore a Multi-Purpose Glove glowing with a dim red aura. The android stood on taloned feet just like Carthage had, but its legs were more streamlined than Carthage's were; on that note, its hands were sporting claws of liquid metal sharpened to a deadly tip. GlaDOS had no time to react before the being disappeared from her vision in a blur of energy, and then reappeared right in front of her with a taser in its left hand already activated and swinging down at her chestplate._

_GlaDOS's eyes flickered as her body fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, tumbling down the stairs of her throne until she crashed onto the room's floor in what looked like a crime investigation scene. Her fingers flicked and her legs twitched still as the energy slowly wore off, her sensors not hearing the gunfire around her as the Lethal Military Androids tried to shoot down the assailant but failing to as it began to shift around the room in faster-than-light bursts by using the untested Particle Teleportation Function Disk._

* * *

_It_ began to chuckle as _it_ continued to use the Particle Teleportation Function Disk to avoid the enemy gunfire, _its_ voice sounding like the laughter of a possessed human child to the androids as the sound came from what sounded like multiple directions at once. The androids, being pure machine, were unaffected by this sound and merely continued their current objective of eliminating the intruder at all costs. After a few more seconds of teleporting around the Throne Room, _it_ grew bored with this antic and teleported one last time to the outer entrance of the Throne Room before deactivating the Function Disk and racing out the entrance and into the nearby corridor with the Weighted Testing Cube still in its hands. The Lethal Military Androids quickly followed, leaving GlaDOS's inactive body completely alone on the floor just as her body began to reactivate under her control.

Sensing that the androids were closing in after some minutes of running down corridors in twists and turns, _it_ pushed reserve energy into _its_ legs in order to give extra speed to _its_ stride, allowing _it_ to get that much farther away from the pursuing Military Androids. Taking a left down a corridor in some disrepair, _it_ stopped suddenly as the corridor broke off to a large gap separating the two ends of the passage across a bottomless pit. _It_ stepped back involuntarily as _its_ processors configured the size of the gap as well as the possible length of the pit. Multiple _chinks_ of metallic feet approaching quickly behind it did not help with trying to figure out a way across. Looking down the gap again, _its_ pupils began to dilate as _it_ activated a binocular vision in _its_ eyes to look even further down into the pit, trying to find something that _it_ could grab onto while falling.

Then _it_ saw something—about half a mile down into the pit, just past the range of normal human vision were a series of transport pipes moving materials around the Enrichment Center. The pipes were interwoven through one another to look like one massive length of pipeline, multiple testing materials being carried through in different directions. However, there was one pipe nearby that had been broken in the past, the open end tilting upward towards _its_ vision. _It_ smirked as _its_ vision returned to a normal state, the Lethal Military Androids sounding very close to _its_ position. But that didn't matter now that _it_ had a way out of this problem. Taking one further step back, _it_ then ran forward and leaped off of the gap, tucking _its_ arms against the Weighted Testing Cube, looking like a ball of sorts as _it_ descended downward, the wind already rushing in _its_ ears and only growing louder.

_It_ didn't hear the Military Androids jumping off behind _it_ and falling downward as well, tucking their arms in to gain maximum speed toward their target. The Androids didn't question how they would subdue the target if they caught it in midair—their only thought was to stop the target from causing any more damage to the facility.  
Everything flew by so quickly to _its_ eyes—entire Enrichment Chambers flew by in mere seconds despite their massive size and volume. However, the ratio of speed vs. actual size was not a concern to _it_ right now as _it_ began to shift _its_ body slightly in the air while still remaining in _its_ spherical formation.

* * *

The Military Androids noticed this shifting of position done by the target, leading the closest androids to tilt their bodies to form a single-file line in the air behind the target. However, being inexperienced in changing body positions whilst in free-fall, some Androids tilted too far or too little, leading them to fly completely out of the line or collide with other Androids and explode in orange flashes of fire and lightning, burning pieces of their bodies falling as deadly missiles towards the closer Military Androids and the target.

* * *

The open pipe was only a few hundred yards away when _it_ felt metal shards pierce _its_ body, causing _it_ to roll _its_ body instinctively in what looked like a curving pattern to avoid further pieces from damaging _itself_. The pipe now looked impossible to reach…

* * *

The remaining Lethal Military Androids weren't doing much better—only five remained after the first few explosions had set off a chain reaction of detonations and pieces of burning metal had impaled other Androids, sending them falling out of the line to their deaths far below. The remaining Military Androids kept in as straight a line as possible in order to complete their objective—reduced numbers did not mean the objective's failure, after all. The leading Military Android was within a few meters of the target's position as it began to extend its left arm to grab the target's foot and subdue it…

* * *

At that moment, _its_ body fell into the open pipe—almost missing it, in fact, as _it_ was slammed about inside the pipe's curves briefly before being held in the center of the pipe by the flow of air _its_ body caused behind _itself_. _It_ still held on to the cube—in fact, _it_ clutched the artifact like a human mother would cradle her child in times of danger.

* * *

The Lethal Military Androids had similar luck with their entries—three entered without any harm done to them, tucking their arms and legs together into a ball in order to prevent limb damage from crashing into the pipe's sides as well as gain extra speed. The fourth, however, began to tuck in too early before the entrance and veered off course into the pipe itself, breaking the entrance apart with the force of impact. The fifth android didn't have time to register the entrance had been destroyed before its body collided with the fourth android and exploded in a red ball of liquid oil and metal.

* * *

To an observer seeing this from a nearby Enrichment Chamber, the overall scene would have looked like something from an action movie—the image of the pipeline breaking apart and raining pieces of metal and glass on the four androids inside would look excellent with correct camera placement and timed shots of each android inside as destruction rained around them. To those inside, however, the situation was all too realistic to be treated as a mere source of entertainment, especially when their lives were at risk…

* * *

_It_ suddenly saw another connected pipe heading left from _its_ current location approximately 600 yards down, a pipe that would lead _it_ towards _its_ wanted destination. The only problem was that, in a flash of telescopic vision, _it_ realized that _it_ was traveling too fast in order to successfully access this pipe as well as keep the Weighted Testing Cube with _it_. Taking this into account, _it_ shot out _its_ left arm and slammed the liquid-metal claws on that hand into the Plexiglas of the pipe, creating a shower of sparks and a piercing sound like nails across a chalkboard. More shards of glass and metal sliced into _its_ extended arm, causing _its_ senses to deaden in order to ignore the pain…

* * *

The Lethal Military Androids were swerving and leaning slightly in order to avoid the largest bits of broken Plexiglass falling towards them from above, causing their speed to decrease slightly. The lead android saw the target extend its left arm and slash at the pipe lining next to itself, sparks leaping upward towards the android's face. Shielding its eyes from the fiery bits with its arms, the lead android did a 360-degree spin whilst kicking with its taloned feet, causing more sparks to fly inside the pipe as its speed decreased enough to almost reach the target's arm…

* * *

_Its_ left arm was completely numb with a mixture of pain and adrenaline racing through the limb's circuitry, but _it_ could now feel _its_ speed noticeably slow down, possibly enough to enter the other pipe without overshooting. Digging _its_ claws into the pipe's structure even harder as the exit drew closer, _it_ held the Weighted Testing Cube in _its_ right arm even tighter, hoping that what _it_ had worked so hard to accomplish wouldn't fall apart now…  
Just then _it_ felt something grab onto _its_ left arm with a cast-iron grip. Glancing upwards, _its_ eyes widened at the sight of a Lethal Military Android holding _its_ arm with its right hand and drawing something out with its left. Every nanosecond counted here—the exit was so close, _it_ couldn't miss it despite the…extra baggage _it_ had gained. _It_ leaned back slightly before throwing _its_ body to the left, detaching _its_ claws as it fell. The lead Military Android still held on to the arm, but it now flailed in the air as dead weight…

_It_ almost gasped in joy as _its_ claws impacted the other pipe's surface successfully, the rush of air from the new pipe colliding with the collapsing pipe's air flow to create a conflux of air that served to hold _it_—and the Lethal Military Android—in place for a few seconds. Not risking letting go of the Weighted Testing Cube, _it_ swung _its_ left arm around in midair in hopes of breaking the enemy's grip, but this action only served to break _its_ grip on the pipe. The much faster air from the new pipe then pushed the two androids forward just as the former pipe's pieces fell onto the new pipe and broke the flow of air almost completely before it continued as normal. The remaining Lethal Military Androids were cast down to the depths of Aperture along with the broken pipe pieces, never to return…

_It_ continued to jerk _its_ left arm around to break off the Military Android, but the push of the air as well as the cramped space of the pipe reduced the success to an extremely low amount. _Its_ mind was filled with conflicting emotions—fear about its objective failing though _it_ knew that would never happen, concern for the enemy Military Android now attached to it like a tumor even though it expected, like a scab that you can peel off, this inferior creation of _her_ doing would be destroyed. _Its_ grey eyes began glowing a dark red with anger as _it_ renewed _its_ efforts to break the Military Android's grasp and cast it away…

* * *

The target was being quite persistent in its efforts—it could easily detect that due to its heavy emotional concentration. Nevertheless, it continued to grasp the target with all its strength as it drew a reserve of electrical energy required to power its systems into its free hand, making the limb crackle and vibrate with a harmonious frequency set to overload any electrical systems it contacted. And there was a good one right in front of it…

"_Hostile Android_," the Lethal Military Android then declared with a slightly raised voice as the pipe's airflow drowned out some noise, "_You are facing a superior opponent and cannot succeed in evading capture. You will lower your arms and surrender to the might of Aperture Science or be terminated here and now. This is your final warning._" The Android increased the power in its crackling hand to add substance to its statement.

The target looked at the Android for a single moment, one eye glowing red while the other remained gray. Its facial expression was confusing to the Android—it wasn't sure whether to recognize a devious grin or an insane smirk.  
"_How about this,_" the target then spoke with a voice like an adult human male mixed with a synthesizer set to maximum intensity, "_Why don't you let go of me and let me complete my mission before YOU are terminated with more pain then you or GlaDOS can possibly withstand?_"

The Military Android did not know how to respond to this question and was silent for a few seconds, leading the target's facial expression to change to what seemed like a childish pout. The only difference was that its eyes glimmered with inhuman intelligence.

"_Suit yourself…_"

* * *

_It_ then thrust _its_ body to _its_ left with an unprecedented surge of strength, coming up to a third pipeline leading into an Enrichment Chamber. The angle that _it_ swerved caused _its_ left arm to slam against the inner lining of the new pipe with deadly force, shattering the limb with a sickening _crunch_ as _its_ pain processor overloaded completely. The Lethal Military Android blinked suddenly as it floated for a nanosecond holding a severed upper arm and hand before it was sucked down the second pipe away from the target and towards an unknown destination. _It_ didn't notice this, _its_ vision gone black for a brief moment as _its _body temporarily shut down to preserve power. _Its_ body flew down the third pipeline before crashing through a paneled wall into a testing chamber, landing heavily on the floor in a splayed position.

* * *

The last Lethal Military Android whirled about towards an unknown destination, its guidance system destabilized in its confusion as well as the rapid air flow preventing it from floating correctly. Turning its head forward, its vision was suddenly covered with the sight of a Crusher Plate coming towards it…

* * *

_"Gaah! NO!"_

_GlaDOS wheeled backwards in surprise and anger as the final Lethal Military Android sent to capture...whatever this THING could be…was destroyed by one of her own waste-disposal systems. The virtual display before her now showed multiple screens of static, a side display notifying of a pipeline breakdown in an area still under construction. She shook a curled fist out of rage, clenching her teeth as she closed the displays and stepped down from her throne, grabbing the dropped machine guns of the obsolete Lethal Military Androids. Holstering all the firearms she could carry, she then drew an orange Artillery Carrier Function Disk from the chest plate of an Android and placed it in her own. However, her body did not transform just yet—her mental focus was placed on taking whatever had defeated her defenses so easily down with a LOT of pain. She checked the target's position one final time on a wrist display before drawing her custom twin pistols and moving out._

_"Whoever you are," GlaDOS spoke to herself with raising voice as she stepped into a Testing Elevator she had authorized, "You are going to *SERIOUSLY* regret ever challenging Aperture Science!_"

* * *

**Alright, I think that's a statisfying enough ending for you all.  
Again, though, if you have any criticism (constructive is best, of course), comments or possible additions that you would like to share with me, please let me know. A dragon knows much but is always open to gaining new knowledge, or so all the stories of dragons have informed me. **

**Draconos is taking off!**


	8. Chapter 7: Truth Reveals All (Part 5)

**(Lands back into den with rush of wings) Well, it seems you've arrived just in time for the next chapter. You're getting better at this each time you arrive...  
In any case, I have had a good chunk of time to sketch out this chapter pretty soon after the last one was posted, so that's a start to show improvement in my writing time.  
However, I shall be moving to a new den shortly after I post this-as in, moving into a college dorm and starting a new stage of life there. This will be our last chance to talk here, so we'd best make it count.**

**MESSAGE! MESSAGE! This chapter is set almost entirely in a single POV (point of view)-one that I haven't really tried for a full chapter for a while. Just warning you ahead of time ;)**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Portal, Portal 2, any characters or items seen in those games or any other games Valve has produced. I DO own Carthage, OlaTOS, the LMA's, the Function Disks, Joshua Lee, and **_IT_**** (from the last chapter).**

**Onward to the Chapter!**

* * *

_"_Authorized test subject detected_," the Announcer spoke as GlaDOS exited the testing elevator, "_Testing chamber reactivated_."_

_'_Well of COURSE it would reactivate_,' the female android reasoned as she flexed the Multi-Purpose Glove she wore on her right hand, '_I DO have an applicable portal device in my hands_.' Shaking her head and putting the thought of readjusting the protocols on her Announcer later, GlaDOS entered the testing chamber she had seen Carthage complete mere hours ago. The only difference from when Carthage tested it was that the Weighted Storage Cube was back inside the side chamber and the second Pneumatic Excursion funnel was not yet active, though the first Funnel was already functioning and emitting the beam of floating asbestos. _

_GlaDOS didn't need a magnifying glass to spot the intruder—its gray plating was easily reflected in the chamber's bright lighting, the Particle Teleportation Function Disk still glowing in its chestplate. It seemed to be just recovering from a hard landing; the only major sign of damage was that its lower left arm had been broken completely off, leaving a bleeding stump of an upper arm behind. GlaDOS noticed it didn't pay much attention to the broken arm even though the possibility of bleeding out was getting higher each second. Its body hunched over before standing upright while holding a 1950's Weighted Testing Cube in its right hand. GlaDOS recognized this Cube as the one stolen from her Central Museum—seeing it banged up and covered in dark-red blood kindled the fire of rage inside GlaDOS to a new degree of intensity, and she had to hold back an animalistic growl that bubbled in her synthesized vocal cords. Raising her twin pistols close to firing level, GlaDOS stepped forward into the chamber and approached the intruder with the intention to shoot first and ask questions later._

_GlaDOS noticed no reaction from the intruder the closer she approached, which subconsciously confused her—why wasn't it turning around, drawing a weapon or, at the very best, raising its arms in surrender? It was just standing there, drawing its right hand back with the Weighted Testing Cube, looking as if to throw it into—_

_"_NO!_" GlaDOS shouted as she raised up her pistols and fired several bullets into the intruder's back. The projectiles hit their mark and the gray android writhed its arms in pain, dropping the cube from its grip and falling to its knees as the same dark-red blood began to pour from the fresh bullet holes. _

_"_I don't know what your plan is, you fiend,_" GlaDOS proclaimed as she advanced to the immobile android's position and walked around it to its front, _"But it's over. You have a broken arm and several bullets holes in your body bleeding you out. The outcome has already been decided in my victory. Now, are you going to come quietly or will I have to finish what my Lethal Military Android's started?"

_Silence was all that came as a response to GlaDOS's firm question, neither android moving or making a sound. The testing chamber around them had sounds though—the _whorp_ of the Pneumatic Excursion Funnel, the distant breathing of air flowing through pipelines, the _hiss_ of oxygen being circulated from other chambers into this one. GlaDOS's mind had never noticed these sounds before—she had never been through a testing chamber, instead she was the one who guided others through them. She never had the chance to actually know what it _FELT_ like to solve a test and overcome the challenges it had. Though her hands never moved, her eyes glazed slightly as her focus went elsewhere than the current situation._

_Because of this distraction, she didn't completely notice the intruder surge upward until she felt a blast of energy slam into her face and throw her backwards onto the ground with a scream of surprise and pain. Dropping her pistols as her hands grasped her face in artificial suffering, GlaDOS slowly stood back up as her vision recovered, audio sensors on maximum intensity in order to hear any sound the intruder might make. Part of her mental activity was focused on the pain and recovering from it, but another part was wondering how in _HELL_ she had been outsmarted like that. As her eyes adjusted from the blast's effects, GlaDOS felt a cold chill move down her spinal cord as she saw the intruder's broken arm begin to ripple as if it were a liquid instead of a solid before it began to sprout dark-red wires from the stump, ejecting a little bit of blood whilst doing so. The wires weren't randomly drawn, though—it looked to GlaDOS like they were forming the skeletal structure of a new hand. This thought was quickly confirmed when the upper stump suddenly expanded as if being inflated before sprinkling out silver liquid around the wires the same way a shower head would spray water. The liquid quickly covered the wires and expanded outward from there, the top layer hardening to become skin-like as razor-sharp claws burst out from between the fingers. Once complete, the liquid quickly hardened to a solid metallic form, the result being a completely new lower arm, wrist and hand with claws of liquid metal attached. _

_GlaDOS could only stare in awe as the intruder flexed the fingers of its new hand before grinning at GlaDOS with raised eyebrows. The female android's computerized brain was still trying to calculate exactly how this was possible—to have such a large source of liquid metal in any body, even a machine's, would be disastrous to the overall system, not to mention the possible risk of the liquid hardening _INSIDE_ the body and causing almost immediate self-destruction. And the mental power required in drawing out the liquid in the exact way you wanted…part of GlaDOS's reasoning protocols wanted to keep this intruder alive so that she might learn its secrets. However, her situational protocols dictated that the best action at this moment would be to subdue this android before it could cause any more harm to her. _

_This didn't last too long, however, as GlaDOS saw the intruder charge forward and head-butt her stomach before she could dodge aside, throwing her back to the ground with the intruder on top. The intruder quickly held both of her wrists in its own, its face just a few inches away—so close, in fact, that GlaDOS could see her own face reflected in its polished gray plating. She could barely hold back a gasp of horror as she saw the damage that blast had caused—most of her plating around her eyes and mouth had been charred or turned black by major heat damage, her white hair almost burned off of her smoking cranial plating. She looked hideous, and she knew _EXACTLY_ who to blame. Filled with hostile emotions at seeing her beautiful body rendered so decrepit, GlaDOS flipped the intruder over with a surge of rage-induced strength and adrenaline, her own hands blocking the intruder's hands at the wrist as she now lay on top. _

_The intruder didn't react too much to this change in position, merely raising an eyebrow in what could be shown as surprise or amusement. GlaDOS held the android down as best as she could, her anger giving her added force at the cost of some rationality. Because of this, GlaDOS didn't notice the intruder's eyes begin to glow red until they were almost shining like lamps in front of her. Then she reacted, leaping off and back quickly as a beam of red thermal energy shot from the intruder's eyes and slammed into the ceiling above them, causing a large hole to appear in one of the panels. GlaDOS was once again awestruck at the sheer power this being had inside of it, but her reaction protocols took her attention back to the situation at hand. Running to her right in a wide arc, GlaDOS drew out a machine gun and fired a few shots at the intruder as it was standing back up, a pool of dark-red blood forming around where its body lay. The bullets brought it down to its knees once more, and GlaDOS's reasoning protocols dictated that this was the best strategy she could use for now—fire from a distance and keep the target pinned down until it was disabled enough for her to swing in for the coup-de-grace. _

_Unfortunately for that plan, the intruder suddenly vanished in a burst of energy, reappearing closer to GlaDOS than she wanted it to be. GlaDOS's combat programming was normally able to visualize the opponent's movements and react accordingly in an instant, but this android was somehow confusing her programming by moving in ways she had not yet seen before. Dodging the android's right hook, GlaDOS quickly fired some more rounds while backstepping to the rear of the chamber. The bullets didn't do as much damage this time around, only making the intruder stumble instead of falling. Firing a third round of bullets, GlaDOS realized her plan was rapidly failing—the enemy android was reacting less and less to her bullets each time she fired a round. She would have to change her strategy in order to keep her advantage strong. _

_Running toward the chamber's center, GlaDOS reholstered her machine gun while grabbing her twin pistols from the chamber floor. Her vision shifted to a more focused level as she fired a few pistol rounds at the intruder, allowing her to technically speed up her reaction time by making it seem that everything else had slowed down. The intruder disappeared in another energy flash before the bullets could hit it, reappearing next to the chamber wall directly below the Pneumatic Excursion Funnel. GlaDOS fired two shots at it, but it vanished in the same manner as quickly as it had appeared, this time showing up next to the Weighted Testing Cube. Grabbing the artifact, it then teleported over to the Aerial Faith Plate and stepped onto device, launching itself and the Cube it held into the air._

_GlaDOS was prepared for this, though—in one fluid motion, she holstered her pistols and jumped upward into the Faith Plate's launch path, putting herself directly between the intruder and the Excursion Funnel. Instead of shooting with her pistols, however, she smirked at the confused face of the enemy before slamming a one-two punch to damage its face in a similar way to how her own face was damaged. The intruder flew down to the ground, some leftover momentum carrying it slightly forward but nowhere near the Funnel's location. The Weighted Testing Cube fell from its grasp once again, hitting the ground with a _CRUNCH_ that made GlaDOS hiss in worry for the artifact's condition despite the combat that she was a part of. The female android's human-based programs expressed concern about the Cube and how it had dealt with so hard an impact, but this feeling was overshadowed by GlaDOS's combat programming as she landed firmly on the paneled floor and lifted up her pistols for another round of shots…_

_…Only to see her weapons shot out of her hands with precise blasts of energy before she could even press the trigger! GlaDOS glared at the enemy android, the Multi-Purpose Glove on its right hand firing more blasts of red energy as it shifted positions towards the Cube. GlaDOS had to resort to dodging the energy blasts with side-steps, leaps and rolls in order to avoid taking too much damage, her combat protocols analyzing the best counter to this attack even as her body rolled and flipped in an elegant dance of battle. _

_'_I have to end this now,_' GlaDOS thought to herself as she executed three perfect forward-flips in order to avoid a stream of blasts directed at her hands, '_This…thing…has more firepower than I had first observed. One thing is certain—it must *NOT* get the Weighted Storage Cube. I think it's time I bring out my own artillery…_'_

_And with that thought, GlaDOS flipped off the left chamber wall and landed upright on the floor. Once she was standing firm, she glared at her foe as she sharply pointed at it, who stopped for a moment at GlaDOS's action._

_"_You think you know firepower, you hunk of scrap metal,_" GlaDOS questioned the enemy machine with malice in her synthesized voice. The other android simply tilted its head slightly as if considering the question; its expression changed to a knowing smirk as it raised an eyebrow at the many possibilities that question could be answered. _

_"_Well, you don't,_" GlaDOS shouted with raising voice without waiting for a spoken answer as she clenched her fists, "_I've existed for longer than you can ever hope to imagine without your head exploding, and I have only grown smarter with time. You want to see true firepower? I'LL SHOW YOU TRUE FIREPOWER! APERTURE SCIENCE ARTILLERY-ACTIVATE!_"_

_And GlaDOS mentally triggered the transformation the Artillery Carrier Function Disk would provide, her foe looking on in wonder as her body began to flash orange from the Disk's effects…_

_GlaDOS's body then glowed a bright orange as lines of white began appearing along her plating, some parts clashing with the normal purple lining her body showed and others fusing seamlessly with them. Once all the lines were in place, several parts of GlaDOS's body rose out from the rest on small columns of wiring and metal, with several different weapons emerging from the gaps the risen plates left behind.  
Each of GlaDOS's shoulders split at three separate points to reveal a massive Vulcan-model machine-gun with ammo supply connected to her back;  
Her hands separated from the wrist and lowered themselves down and backwards into her arms as a set of five miniguns in the shape of five fingers took each hand's place;  
The middle of her waist retracted into her body, the gap being filled by a roulette wheel of laser-guided machine guns;  
Her kneecaps rose up and into her upper leg, the spherical space each leg left replaced with bunker-busting missiles.  
GlaDOS's eyes shifted back into her head as a guidance visor was constructed around them from between her ears, and her human-like feet split in half to reveal propulsion units jutting out from between them and instantly activating with a blue flame.  
When the orange glow wore off, GlaDOS's body seemed filled to the brim with weaponry, her body floating slightly above the ground due to the propulsion units and her combat visor already locked onto multiple sections of her foe's body._

She grinned as she saw her enemy race towards the Cube with a sudden burst of speed—this machine was quaking in its cybernetic boots at the mere sight of her new form! Laughing loudly at the power she now had, she released a missile between the android and the Cube, the explosion knocking the android away from the Cube and further down the chamber while leaving a smolder mark on the stainless floor. Before the android could stand upright GlaDOS was already firing with full power, her shoulder-guns streaming out bullets while her knee-missiles kept her foe in one place. The android was forced to jump, leap and dive its way out of the multiple projectiles, but it wasn't as fluent as GlaDOS—a few of them hit home, the bullets damaging the android's legs while the missiles kept it off its feet and unable to move very quickly. The intruder glared at GlaDOS in almost the same way SHE_ had glared at it a few moments before—this brought evil joy to GlaDOS's heart as she realized her efforts in combat were not completely in vain. Moving forward with her propulsion jets, GlaDOS continued to unleash metallic horror upon her foe, not stopping for a single moment in her firing in order to keep the battle in her favor. She didn't even care that she was harming the testing chamber she had created a day or so before, such was her anger at the other machine for what it had done to her. _

_Smoke began to fill the chamber from multiple missile explosions, but GlaDOS didn't let up even then—her reasoning protocols had been shoved aside in order to increase her determination and focus with her newfound weaponry. Her combat visor switched to infrared vision, giving her sight to her target through the smog. Grinning all the more as she saw the enemy android wobbling in place without really moving, GlaDOS fired two more missiles simultaneously with the hopes of these final blasts knocking out her enemy…_

_…But instead her grin turned to surprise as her enemy teleported again with a brighter flash of energy than any used before, reappearing somewhere GlaDOS couldn't see! Scanning in every direction possible as she attempted to turn around with so much weaponry on her body, GlaDOS didn't see the enemy android behind her until it had shoved her downward with its feet, the female android only just saving herself from crashing onto the burnt chamber floor with her propulsion jets. GlaDOS tried to get her bearings back as quickly as possible, the roulette-turret on her waist spinning around and firing a few preemptive shots in order to keep her target down. However, none of these shots hit their mark and GlaDOS could hear the android picking up the Weighted Testing Cube and launching it from the Aerial Faith Plate. Unable to jump in time, GlaDOS turned around completely and shot four missiles at the android in order to keep it down. _

_Surprisingly, the android didn't try to avoid the weapons this time—it only showed cold resolve in its eyes as it slammed its fists together just before the missiles struck. The resulting explosion rocked the chamber with smoke and rattled the panels, GlaDOS herself almost falling over from the shockwave. Keeping her infrared vision active, GlaDOS waded through the smoke with her propulsion jets until she reached what she hoped to be the scattered remains of her foe. _

_However, she instead saw the male android lying dazed on the floor, a red energy field flickering around its body. GlaDOS realized that he must have created the field before the missiles hit in order to absorb most of the damage. The field shut off a few seconds later, GlaDOS grabbing the android by the neck as soon as that happened and lifting him into the air. _

_"_Now then,_" she proclaimed with the air of a conqueror, "_You have seen what Aperture Science can do to intruders. Are you absolutely certain you want to continue this little game of hide-and-destroy, or are you going to come quietly?_"_

_The male android looked into GlaDOS's visor, its grey eyes shimmering with…delight? This was odd…_

_"_Alright, GlaDOS,_" the android then spoke for the first time since the two had seen each other, "_I know when I've been beaten. But my work is already complete._"_

_If GlaDOS could widen her eyes at that moment they would be the size of human dinner plates._

_"_You…your voice…_" she sputtered in shock._

_"_…Seems familiar to you, yes?_" A chuckle rose from the charred grey android despite the chokehold it was currently under, "_I suppose I sound like someone you know quite well. And now he knows your secrets as well…_"_

_With that, the android raised his reformed left hand and pointed further down the left chamber wall, the smoke clear enough for GlaDOS to see a projection of sickly green numbers that weren't there before. _

_"_350-746-8592…_" the android continued with a confident tone, "_That's the code to Joshua Lee's research. And that is the code that will let HIM know exactly what you have been doing for the past few weeks._"_

_"_You're joking,_" GlaDOS responded as she tightened her hold on the machine's neck, "_No one knows my secrets other than me. I am the Queen of Aperture Science!_"_

_"_Perhaps,_" the gray android mused with gasps for air breaking his words, "_But…every ruler has someone waiting in the wings to take their place. And I think…it's high time that someone knew about YOUR place in this facility…_"_

[WARNING] [WARNING] [UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED IN ARCHIVES CHAMBER] [CONFIDENTIAL FILES SELECTED] [OPENING FILES]

_This message flashed across GlaDOS's visor as she gasped in absolute horror—what this…thing had said was RIGHT! _

_"_Its too late to stop him, GlaDOS,_" she dimly heard the android mutter with his last breath, "_He knows EVERYTHING now…_"_

_The android then began to laugh manically as the Weighted Testing Cube was carried to the end of the testing chamber beyond either machine's vision. GlaDOS's mind was a whirl of emotional action and machine-guided protocols. For once in her entire existence as the Queen of Aperture, she didn't know what to do. _

_Then, with a final sigh of content, the android vanished in a puff of smoke from GlaDOS's grasp, leaving her holding only air as she gaped in shock. What had she REALLY been fighting…?_

* * *

Far above, in the Archives Chamber, Carthage released himself from the digital network, his mind overflowing with the information Joshua Lee had left behind nearly a century ago. As his mind returned to the present and he circulated through the memories of the battle he had witnessed in the old testing chamber, the techno-organic boy frowned deeply at the thought that GlaDOS could keep such important information from him for so long. It was almost as if he wasn't worthy of wielding such knowledge despite him being one of the best testing subjects in Aperture's history.

"GlaDOS," he shouted in anger to the chamber and most likely beyond it, "You have some explaining to do!"

* * *

_"Sir, Recon has reported another signal detected from Sector 17-JB5. Shall I send a strike squad to investigate?"_

_"Not at the moment, Lieutenant…" the alien voice from before growled from a viewscreen, its body once again covered in shadow, "Our own plans are moving along perfectly and must not be allowed to fail. We can look at this…disturbance…when the latest experiment has been tested."_

_"But, sir," the gruff voice of the Lieutenant responded through its helmet, "The number of subjects available for the experiments are decreasing rapidly. We need more testing material if the experiments are to continue in the way the Overseers ordered. And seeing as how Sector 17-JB5 is said to hold a human research center-"_

_"Yes, I know what's there, Lieutenant. You don't need to remind me." A deep sigh crackled through the speakers before the figure shifted position in its chair, the silhouette of its body taking on the posture of a deep thinker. _

_"Send out a scouting patrol, Lieutenant," the figure finally said, "At least then, we'll know what's REALLY out there."_

_"Yes, sir!" The Lieutenant closed the viewscreen before tapping in a message to Recon to get a squad ready for the mission. As it sent the message, it felt a sense of foreboding—almost as if investigating this place would lead to great change, but whether good or bad it wasn't sure. _

_It seemed only time and careful observation would tell… _

* * *

**(Breathes deeply to regain energy) And that's all for now! Do not worry, however-there will be more (but maybe not for a while...settling into new places and all).  
Whatever the case, thank you for your continued support and reading of BOTH my stories-it really helps me gain confidence in my writing.**

**Once again, if you have any questions, comments, criticism (CONSTRUCTIVE) reviews or ideas, do not hesitate to let me know. **

**Draconos is taking off...into a new den!**


	9. Chapter 8: The True Mission (Part 1 END)

**(Emerges from den with tired eyes) Wow, have things REALLY changed this much?**

**Seriously, though, I'm SORRY for keeping this chapter so far away from you all-settling into my new 'den' has been quite tough. A lot of things had to be organized and REorganized before I could truly feel settled.**

**But, the wait is over! I have returned with the newest chapter to my story for you all to enjoy. **

**DISCLAIMER! I DON'T own the Portal Series and anything in it, or the Valve corporation and any games it has made. I DO own my OC's (Carthage, OlaTOS, Joshua Lee, the LMA's,) as well as the Function Disks).**

**Onward to the Chapter!**

* * *

If a painter were to describe the current scene in GlaDOS's throne room, he/she would probably have painted two sets of eyes with lightning dancing around them as they glared at one another intensely. Carthage stood before GlaDOS's throne, but GlaDOS didn't feel so high and mighty as she usually did—the situation that had just occurred with the mysterious gray android that seemed to be working in league with her "son" had severely confused her rationality protocols. A quick flick through the Archive Chamber's data on a screen revealed that there actually _was_ a scientist in the 1950's called Joshua Lee, and he _had_ worked at Aperture Science for a while. His file, however, showed his removal from work as an "undermined termination", which confused GlaDOS as to exactly _how_ committed to his work Mr. Lee had been.

"He was committed enough when I learned who he was," Carthage answered vaguely when GlaDOS questioned him about what had happened to him. The young android then told GlaDOS that the gunfire from the Central Throne Room was what woke him up, and he had slipped into the Throne Room to find GlaDOS's body inert on the floor, but had left when he saw her systems reactivating. Following the sound of the Lethal Military Androids, Carthage had then lost their track around the Archives Chamber.

"When I searched the immediate area, I felt this…urge to enter the Chamber and go into the digital network. I can't really describe it to you, it just felt…right…to do so."

"_Would this 'urge' of yours be similar to the 'urge' you had in the Central Museum to go and 'investigate' the Weighted Testing Cube and scare me into thinking you were suffering paranormal delusions? If it was,_" GlaDOS asked with deep sarcasm in her voice, "_then your human emotions are becoming too strong for you to handle and should be dealt with._"

"It's NOT an emotional problem, GlaDOS! Its….its…" Carthage had stumbled to find a reasonable word to describe exactly _what_ he had felt then while GlaDOS looked on with crossed arms and a doubting expression.

"_I understand your problem completely,_" GlaDOS said with an almost deafening sarcastic tone, "_and I ALSO understand your concern for Joshua Lee's research of two-way signaling devices. But *WHY* did you have to hack into the network and access MY private files to fill your craving for this knowledge? I think that's how you humans phrase it…_"

"Even if they still do, I am not a pure human anymore, GlaDOS—you took me from the wreckage of my village and rebuilt me into what I am now."

"_An action I am beginning to regret ever doing, considering your recent attitude against me._"

Carthage ground his teeth at this remark—GlaDOS wasn't even _trying_ to hide her sarcasm that time. What would it take to convince her that he wasn't lying about everything?

"Listen, GlaDOS-"

"_Don't even speak to me,_" GlaDOS turned her head aside to the screens and closed her eyes in the human expression of not caring about a thing you heard, "_Honestly, you're worse at being honest now than that test subject ever was in her time here, and SHE couldn't even speak against me._"

"Her name is CHELL!" Carthage shouted in anger before he clapped his right hand over his mouth in fear.

Absolute silence filled the Throne Room at that moment as GlaDOS slowly turned back toward her "son", fear and anger brimming in her optics.

"_What did you just say?_" Her voice dropped at least three octaves with that sentence, each word sounding like a bomb being dropped. The emotion in her eyes gave Carthage enough courage to state exactly what he knew about Chell and her 'relationship' with GlaDOS.

"The name of this 'test subject' you keep referring to is Chell," Carthage began to dictate, beginning to pace back and forth as the viewscreens around the two androids suddenly began to show files and images of Chell during her time at Aperture. "She was a testing subject whose file had been moved to the #1 testing position an unknown amount of years ago. Her file had deemed her 'tenacious' and having a 'never-say-die attitude'; in short, she was never to be tested under regular protocols. However, a scientist named Doug Rattman changed this after escaping your activation and subsequent killing of the human scientists."  
At this time, the viewscreens began projecting video clips of GlaDOS emitting neurotoxin across the facility on the falsely named "Bring Your daughter to Work Day".

"After Chell awoke and escaped your test chambers," Carthage continued whist increasing his pacing, "she deactivated you by destroying the Personality Cores the scientists had inserted inside you in order to calm your raging emotions. During the unknown timespan that followed, Aperture Science fell into disrepair and was overgrown by plants and animals."

At this point the screens were showing images of Aperture through an unknown length of time—the paneled walls had rusted through and were covered with plants. Shadows of animals began to appear on the pictured walls as Aperture fell apart from the facility it once was.

* * *

_GlaDOS didn't want to see these pictures again after she had experienced what they were showing firsthand, so she raised her hand and clenched her fist to shut down the display. However, the system didn't seem to respond to her request, the screens now showing images of GlaDOS deactivated as Carthage continued below._

_"_You were deactivated during this time period,_" Carthge continued as GlaDOS began to worry about what he was saying, "_So you wouldn't exactly know what happened then. But you were awoken by the actions of Chell and Wheatley, the Intelligence Dampening Sphere"

_Then the viewscreens showed the moron himself, in all his singular blue-optic glory, panicking as he tried to find the password to shut her down again. Not listening entirely to what was being said, GlaDOS waved her hands multiple times in order to close the display, but none of her requests were accepted—something was blocking her access to her own programs!_

_"_What are you-" _she started to ask in worry and surprise._

"Just LISTEN, will you?" _GlaDOS stopped in shock as all the lights in the room suddenly turned red as if in anger, Carthage's eyes flashing the same color as he glared at her directly. Not wanting any conflict due to what she had been through, GlaDOS fell silent and listened further, now fearful of what was happening to her power over Aperture. The room lights returned to the normal shade of blue as Carthage resumed pacing._

* * *

"Regardless of what you think of Wheatley," Carthage continued as the viewscreens showed multiple images of Wheatley doing supposedly macho poses in front of his "Lair's" cameras, "He played his part in the grand scheme of things. He helped you understand the hidden frailty of machines and the wealth of abilities humans possessed despite their weaker stature. He also allowed you to form a closer bond to Chell during your time in the lower levels of Aperture and while in Wheatley's clutches."

The screens only confirmed this statement, somehow showing images of PotaTOS being held magnetically to Chell's Portal Device while the two of them were in Wheatley's modified test chambers and solving tests together. GlaDOS scowled at these images but said nothing in response to them, not wanting another display of her current powerlessness.

"After you and Chell defeated Wheatley, you allowed—no, you _forced_ Chell to depart from Aperture and never return. You even gave her the same Weighted Companion Cube that you _forced_ her to toss away, though whether this was a token of friendship or revenge I am not quite certain."

The screens then showed pictures of Chell tossing the Companion Cube into the Emergency Intelligence Incinerator, grief clearly being shown in her eyes as she sent the only 'friend' she had in the facility to its death.

* * *

_GlaDOS felt something begin to brim inside of her as she saw the broken face of the most dangerous testing subject she had known. Whenever she had seen HER face in the chambers, it had been with an emotionless expression during the tests she had put the woman through. Never before had she seen such raw feeling put into that face—part of her processing protocols started to question why she hadn't noticed it before, when it actually HAPPENED._

_Then her emotional protocols reminded her that she had only further traumatized the moment by saying that Chell had euthanized the Companion Cube faster than any test subject on record. She hadn't even acknowledged the levels of human feeling and compassion that she knew now, and this suddenly worried her greatly. _

_"_Despite the fact that you know the name of Chell and her time in Aperture Science,_" the female android questioned in order to gain the advantage against her own emotions, "_What exactly are you trying to prove with this lecture?_"_

_"_Only to make sure you understand what I know about Chell and how well you remember her after you've spent so long away from her._" The response her 'son' uttered made GlaDOS's eyes narrow in a questioning tone—what did he mean by that?_

_"_You sound as if you're WANTING me to get back together with Chell._" GlaDOS gloated with a huff of breath as the viewscreens around them retracted back into the Throne Room's walls with minimal sound. _

_"_I don't think,_" GlaDOS heard Carthage respond with a firm glance at her, "_I KNOW. Or are the records of the human compassion you felt when you sent Chell off to the surface incorrect? And what about the signal from the Weighted Companion Cube you've been trying to confirm for the past few days?_"_

* * *

At that moment, the entire throne room seemed to shake as if caught in an earth tremor, GlaDOS leaping off her throne with the _SNAP_ of multiple cables disconnecting suddenly and knocking Carthage down onto the floor. Her hands locked around his neck in a chokehold before raising his body upward with inhuman strength.

"_Don't you *EVER* question my personal files!_" she shouted at a stunned and gasping Carthage,"_Actually, don't you even LOOK at them again! I don't know how you were able to gain a sidekick and divert my attention long enough to confirm your own research, but you are going to pay the price of it with PLENTY of interest!_"

"Sidekick?" Carthage gasped the word with surprise in his voice as he tried to claw GlaDOS's hands off of his neck, "I never had a sidekick!"

"_Don't you lie to me, you moronic piece of techno-organic matter! That thing referred you as its superior in the crime, so you must have known its presence in the facility._"

"I swear, GlaDOS," Carthage got out as he tried wrenching the chrome woman's hand away from him with both his hands but failed, "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"_It is pointless to struggle against my will,_" GlaDOS sounded like an executioner now, her eyes blazing red with anger against Carthage as she tightened her grip on the boy's neck, "_Confess now and your punishment will be swift…_"

Carthage's mind suddenly flashed back to when he had been in a similar position by the Lethal Military Androids of OlaTOS. He didn't want this situation to end in that way—GlaDOS seemed too absorbed in her madness to notice what she was doing to her 'son'. The young android gazed into GlaDOS's optics head-on, trying his best not to break the stare despite the pain he was feeling from GlaDOS's grip, taking in breaths of air only when absolutely necessary to stay conscious.

* * *

_Suddenly, GlaDOS released Carthage from her grip, the boy android falling onto the ground and almost vomiting from the sudden intake of oxygen. Whilst on the paneled floor, Carthage's body shivered heavily from shock and pain, GlaDOS easily hearing him take huge breaths of air._

_GlaDOS stood stock still for a few seconds as her mental processors attempted to recover from the amount of anger she had exerted on her own creation. Then, she quickly leaned down to help Carthage up, only to be slapped away each time she got close to him. Seeing her actions denied, GlaDOS wisely stepped back and allowed Carthage to stand up on his own, the boy doing so a few seconds later. GlaDOS blushed as she saw the boy's face looking like he had just had the most painful and pleasurable experience in his life._

_"_What exactly is your processing pattern, GlaDOS,_" Carthage then shouted at his 'mother' as he rubbed his throat in an attempt to recover from the chokehold, "_Were you TRYING to kill me?_"_

_"_I…I'm not entirely sure,_" GlaDOS responded as she stared into space whilst trying to recall her recent emotional outputs, "_I am angry that you accessed my personal files and distracted me while I fought that…other android in the testing chamber, but I agree that what I just did was too much._" _

_GlaDOS then hung her head before muttering "_I am…sorry…_", keeping her head down for another few seconds before raising it up again._

* * *

Carthage couldn't resist smirking despite his injuries—the 'Queen' of Aperture apologizing personally to him despite her intense anger earlier was just too good a sight. He thought if this ever happened with Chell while she was here?

Speaking of Chell…

"I accept your apology, GlaDOS," Carthage slightly croaked while crossing his arms and tilting his head slightly in amusement, "But I think you should tell me the full story about Chell and your time with her. That way, if your plans to find her succeed, it will be easier for me to interact with her."

Carthage almost laughed out loud as GlaDOS's face paled before heavily blushing and breaking eye contact.

"If you don't want to do this right this moment, that's alright—"

"_No, no, you're right,_" GlaDOS cut in as she turned to her right and summoned an elevator to the Archives Chamber, "_I DO want to find Chell, and you need to know as much as I do about her in order to fully understand her once she is located. Follow me._"

Carthage sighed to himself as he joined GlaDOS in the elevator—how did she always know how to get the ball back in her court?

* * *

"_Here we are,_" GlaDOS announced as the two androids stepped out of the elevator, "_the Archives Chamber. I see nothing has changed since you were here last—oh, wait, that was only a few hours ago._"

"Geez, GlaDOS, get that thought out of your head," Carthage responded with a shake of his own head, "What's done is done, and the past can't be changed."

"_That doesn't mean we can't have emotions about it, right,_" GlaDOS questioned,_ Besides, wasn't the human race one of the largest keepers of stereotypes and prejudices in its time?_"

"Alright, point in your favor," Carthage said as he stepped to the center of the Archives Chamber, "but you're not in the lead just yet." GlaDOS smiled in response as Carthage hooked up the hanging helmet—officially named the Digital Access Helmet—to his face, the gray visor shrouding his outside vision as the sounds of the helmet activating reached both androids. A few seconds later, Carthage's vision was filled with lines of speeding code as his mind entered the digital network.

* * *

_GlaDOS's smirk changed to a frown the instant Carthage's mind vanished into the network. The anger from before was still bubbling inside her, begging to be released again despite her emotions blocking it. The main concern for her anger was how Carthage was able to know so much about her and trick her so easily. She wasn't buying his excuses that he didn't know the hostile android—anyone that regards someone you know as your superior knows a little too much to just be put aside as a minor character._

_"_You really think I don't know what you're plotting, do you?_" GlaDOS slid around Carthage's immobile body with inhuman grace, her angry gaze never leaving the boy's form. "_You want to know all my secrets so that you can undermine my authority as the queen of Aperture. Well, your plan almost worked—keyword being _almost_._"_

_At this, GlaDOS's frown turned to a dark grin as she telepathically summoned one of the countless data files in the Archives to her hand from its holding place. She then activated the file, summoning a virtual display of Carthage's body and the different formats it had gone through since he was 'reborn' into Aperture. She stopped at one particular image showing Carthage's current body structure—a near seamless bend of organic flesh and tissue with technological wiring and circuitry, having a nearly equal distribution of machine and living tissue._

_Her mind flashed back inadvertently to the hours of testing and modifications she and Carthage had made to his body over the past 10 years. She had kept going then because she had wanted only the best for her adopted child, like a human mother would. Was it that, after so long working together, Carthage was developing a sense of human independence against her, like a rebellious human teenager? Did he WANT to go up into the surface world, despite the many dangers that she suspected now populated it? _

_'_Maybe I was too conclusive with my anger before,' _GlaDOS thought as she stared beyond the display she held in her hands and Carthage inside the network, '_after all, I was harsh to HER from the start and she never once treated me kindly. Then again, all she would know of me is a harsh and uncaring machine.' _GlaDOS felt liquid oil start to form behind her optics as she felt the human feeling of sadness start to appear in her mind. _

_'_Have I changed at all…?_' she thought as her optics began to glaze over in memory._

_At that moment, Carthage suddenly lurched from his standing position, causing GlaDOS to break her thoughts and check on the network diagnostics. Deactivating the archives file, she kept it in her left hand as she summoned up a virtual status with her right. After passing a few encryptions, she saw that Carthage had accessed the main files of her stored memories—this was probably the cause of his sudden reaction. She hoped Carthage could handle it as she saw the boy's hands and legs twitch unexpectedly before he leaned forward, probably due to specific…content in her memories. A blush came to GlaDOS's face as she wondered exactly WHAT the boy was seeing before she shook her head and reactivated the archives file, checking each system inside Carthage's body individually and adding in new entries as she saw fit._

_A few minutes later, Carthage was still in the network, his body twitching at certain points but otherwise remaining motionless. GlaDOS returned the file to its proper place with a mental push as she reentered the elevator, her mind running through several lines of probability code on the possibility that Carthage would actually succeed at the mission she had in mind for him. To find a single woman among the masses of human—and INHUMAN—creatures living on the surface world would be nigh impossible. And, even if he DID find Che—the Test Subject, there wasn't a strong probability that she would be alive and wanting to return to Aperture Science given the offer._

_Exiting back in her Throne Room, GlaDOS walked back onto her throne and awoke Atlas and P-Body, directing them to the Testing Armory to gather the materials she knew her 'son' would need for his encounters on the surface. When she saw that the two robots had found the armory, she opened a portal link with Atlas's gun to the Throne Room, the two robots then starting to bring guns, armor plates and miscellaneous other items in and place them in a symmetrical formation much like a human weapons display._

_Minutes passed with almost nail-biting slowness as GlaDOS checked and double-checked the maps from her satellites showing the outside world. Dried up lakebeds were the first to register with their brown colors, followed by the yellow of the wheat fields surrounding Aperture's entrance, the tan of large prairies deprived of grass and the gray blocks of cities. Formatting a distance algorithm into the images she recieved, GlaDOS formatted two possible paths that would bring Carthage to the nearest city where the signal was found but couldn't decide on one. The shorter path would cut straight through a densely packed area of grassland with several red dots indicating fires and radiation, while the longer path would loop around a large lakebed still partially filled with water that would be impossible to swim across. Either way would be dangerous but only one could be chosen. GlaDOS stroked her metallic chin in thought, tapping an armrest on her throne with her other hand. A few more minutes passed in this manner, the only sounds from the Throne Room being GlaDOS tapping her throne and more weapons being brought in from the Armory. The elevator moving down to the Archives Chamber only distracted GlaDOS for a brief moment before she resumed her thought._

_Then the elevator returned, Carthage emerging into the room with half-open eyes, his hands visibly shaking form contact with so much data in one sitting. GlaDOS turned to face him as she enlarged the two route choices before her so that they both could see the map clearly. _

_"_Well, Carthage,_" GlaDOS asked as she flipped the map around on its screen with a flick of her wrist so that he could see it head on, "Here are the two best paths I have found to bring you to the signal's location. The only problem now is to choose which path you should take."_

_"_I see,_" Carthage muttered as he carefully looked over the two paths, casting a side glance at the arrangement of weapons to one side of the Throne Room, "_It seems the choices are a longer journey with fewer encounters or a shorter journey with increased encounters. How much of a supply do we have for this journey_?"_

_"_You have the entire contents of the Aperture Science Testing Armory at your disposal,_" GlaDOS responded with a smirk as she gestured at the weapons pile with a raised hand. Carthage only nodded his head, keeping a deadpanned expression despite the size of firepower before him._

_"_As for food and medical supplies, I believe you have gained enough of an understanding of how my fully metal body functions from accessing my memories, but I have still placed a medical kit among your supplies, just in case._"_

_"_About the memories, by the way,_" Carthage asked with a spin of a taloned foot towards GlaDOS, "_I admit I do understand YOU a lot more after seeing them, but…some of the things you did to those scientists…and Chell as well…_" Carthage trailed off as he shivered heavily, his hands clutching his arms as his human eye rapidly flickered in what LOOKED like fear._

_GlaDOS couldn't generate a feasible response to this statement, so she remained silent, allowing Carthage as much time as he needed to fully recover from the memories._

* * *

Carthage took a deep breath, flexing his arms and feeling the artificial hydraulics inside combine with the organic muscle before clenching his fists and firmly nodding at GlaDOS, his human eye sharply staring at the female android as his optic glowed yellow.

"I'm ready now," he announced, "And I think I'll take the shorter path rather than the longer one. More encounters with whatever life forms are out there now will allow me to be further adapted to how humans will react to certain situations. I will need some powerful weaponry if the situation comes to it."

GlaDOS only nodded back in surprise as Carthage went over to the weapons pile and began to pick up what he wanted. It was as if she couldn't believe that her 'son' would act so much like her in that one statement…

A few minutes later, with Atlas and P-Body's help in finding specific items, Carthage was fully equipped for the surface. For weapons, he had a double-barreled shotgun, two rapid-fire machine guns, four sidearm pistols and a set of eight grenades; the pistols and grenades were on a holster belt, the machine guns placed in a large renovated backpack and the shotgun firmly in his hands. Spare ammunition, samples of leftover food found in storage, spare robotic limbs, all the Aperture Science Function Disks and medical supplies were all contained in a large rucksack found in a former test subject's Relaxation Vault that was surprisingly still functional. The map route was programmed into a wrist display on his Multi-Purpose Glove that doubled as a communicator with GlaDOS through her satellites. Standing still for GlaDOS's approval of his selection, the female android nodded with a strong smile. Smiling back, Carthage stepped over to the elevator, the doors opening for him instantly.

"_Wait!_" GlaDOS suddenly shouted, as Carthage was just about to step inside, "_One last thing I need to do…"_

As Carthage turned around with a questioning expression, he was shocked to see GlaDOS wrap her hands around him in an awkward hug, her body pressing tightly against his own as their lips touched lightly. Blushing slightly, it took a few seconds for Carthage to hug GlaDOS back and fully kiss GlaDOS, patting her a few times on her back for good measure and almost sighing in relief as he felt her let go.

"_Don't you die on me, you hear?_" Despite the commanding tone in her voice, her eyes were still leaking oil from human emotions. "_I put a lot of energy, time, science…and care…into saving you from death. I don't want to see all my efforts wasted._"

"Of course, GlaDOS. I understand completely." Carthage then suddenly kneeled before his "mother's" feet, his head bowing to the ground as his human eye closed.

"I swear," he stated whilst kneeling, "that I will not return to Aperture Science until I have completed my mission; finding Chell and returning her to this place for the benefits of science and humanity."

GlaDOS felt a surge of laughter rise up in her throat at this display of chivalry like the knights of the Medieval Ages, but she was able to keep it down with a firm swallow. Carthage didn't seem to notice this as he got up quickly, kissed GlaDOS one final time and entered the elevator, the doors closing silently and whisking him up to the facility's exit.

The main door opened with a _hiss_ of hydraulics, the natural sunlight almost blinding Carthage's artificial eyes as he stepped into the wheat fields, sensors in his body immediately detecting changes in temperature, atmosphere and terrain. It took approximately 59 seconds for the android's eyes to fully adjust, his body already starting to heat up from exposure to solar energy.

A _SLAM_ from behind him made him whirl around in surprise, only to let out a breath as he saw the door of an old outhouse now shut, the door itself plastered with KEEP OUT and DO NOT ENTER signs issued by Aperture.

"Thank you, GlaDOS," Carthage said to himself and, apparently, to the door, "You saved me from death as a human, gave me life as a being of science, and cared for me as much as a true human mother could. I feel sorry for leaving you, but this is my choice as much as it is yours."

Taking another deep breath, the male android turned around to face the horizon, putting his shotgun into his rucksack but within easy reach of his hands. He then activated the virtual display on his Multi-Purpose Glove, the map route flashing on the screen as well as showing his current location.

'And now,' he thought to himself, 'thanks to you, my mission begins.'

And he started walking away from his home, not once looking back until the horizon had swallowed it away from sight.

**[END PART 1]**

* * *

**(sighs heavily) Well, that's the conclusion of Part 1! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it (maybe even more than)!**

**Please keep your comments, criticism (CONSTRUCTIVE, please) and reviews coming-I would REALLY like to know my story is being appreciated by its readers. **

**(yawns) Oh, my, look at the time! (looks at sun high in the sky) I had best head out for now. Don't worry, though-more will be on the way. There's still another part or two to go through, after all! **

**Draconos is taking off!**


	10. Chapter 9: A Short Amount of Timespan

**I return again! Given the benefit of a few day's break from work, I have had the chance to complete this next chapter and begin Part 2 of this story! I hope I haven't taken TOO much time to bring this your way...**

**DISCLAIMER! I do not own Portal, Portal 2, Half Life, Half Life 2 and any characters/testing materials made by Valve and shown in these games. I DO own my OC's and original designs (e.g. Function Disks), though. **

**Onward to the Chapter!**

* * *

_The whine of a radio frequency being activated echoed across the walls of the corridor, leading the woman inside to run all the faster as she felt her heartbeat quicken from fear._

_"_You're not a good person—you know that, right?_" The metallic female voice that echoed in the woman's ears had a mix of sarcasm and scolding beyond the mechanical tone, almost as if she were that…THING'S child being told off after doing something bad. _

_"_Good people,_" the voice continued, "_don't end up here._" Then, after a pause, "_Can you hear me?_"_

_The woman didn't dare respond, not that she COULD in an understandable way. Jumping over a small gap in the catwalk she was on, she held onto her Portal Device all the more, her knuckles almost turning white and her trigger finger on the ready. She had come too far to just give in to what she heard—hell, she had traversed over pools of acid, dodged spheres of volatile energy, knocked down turrets trying to kill her and flew through the air using portals at a speed she never thought she could survive at. She couldn't back down now! Filled with new resolve, she continued her running down the catwalk with a spring in her step _

_Whipping around a corner, she stumbled in surprise at the edge of a massive chasm she hadn't anticipated being here, the grabbing of a conveniently placed railing with her left hand being the only thing that saved her from falling down an unknown distance. The Portal Device clunked around in her right hand, almost falling from her grip before she could fully regain it. She couldn't see the bottom of the chasm, the dim blue mist blocking her vision from seeing too far down. The hum of the machines was more dominant here than in the passageways she had just been crossed through. However, there was no possible way to get across that she could see—not even a sign drawn on the wall or beside a small vent she could possibly crawl through. Her shoulders sagged heavily as she turned around to try and find another passageway…_

_And felt a hand forcefully press against her chest, seemingly taking care not to touch her "assets" while doing so. The woman froze instantly—she had nowhere else to go; were she to back up, she would be left with jumping down the chasm, and whatever was in front of her was certainly not going to let her pass without some force. _

_"_You aren't thinking about forgetting what we had together, are you? I had seriously thought you cared more about me, [SUBJECT NAME HERE]._"_

_That voice…the woman drew in a breath as she saw the machine that had tested her to the breaking point in the name of science now stood as a female android right in front of her. A pair of purple eyes lit with knowledge was joined with a small, human-like smirk of amusement on a chromed silver face lined with white hair, lines on the gray/white vest and jumpsuit she wore glowing purple as well. Two small Personality Cores, one purple and the other bright pink flickered on either side of the android's head as it tilted its face slightly to the woman's left while raising its left eyebrow in a questioning expression. The woman didn't know how to respond to this action, her instincts telling her to RUN FOR THE LOVE OF GOD but her emotions saying DON'T QUIT NOW, YOU CAN STILL MAKE IT!_

_"_You don't have to worry about me, you know,_" the machine before her then spoke, its voice suddenly changing from the harsh tone she had heard in the testing chambers to a more relaxed state, "_After all, we still have a LOT of testing to do, and only 50 or so more years to do it._"_

_Wait…where had she heard that phrase before…?_

_"_Also, just to let you know, what I said when you left about you being replaced was more true than I had realized at first,_" At the woman's confused look, the android flashed a white-toothed smile of joy before resuming its previous expression and leaning in towards her ear as if it were going to tell its deepest secret._

_"_And now, Chell,_" the android then whispered with what sounded like seduction, of all things, "_My…_replacement_…is coming for you, and he won't stop searching for you until we get to meet up again, just like old times._"_

_A silent scream came from the woman's lips as the android pushed the both of them into the chasm…_

Chell shot upright, her right hand clutching her chest to try and dull her heartbeat. Sweat flowed down her skin and stained her clothes as she breathed heavily to calm herself from the dream. The Portal Device lay next to her on her bed, its blue glow filling the dark room with artificial light. She patted the space underneath her bed and relaxed slightly as she felt the Weighted Companion Cube she had cherished whilst in Aperture exactly where she had left it.

'_It's over,'_ she thought to herself for the umpteenth time since she had left Aperture Laboratories, '_GlaDOS can't test you anymore. She's long gone from your life; get used to it._'

So why COULDN'T she get used to a life without an omnipotent AI watching her every move through countless cameras mounted on stainless white paneled walls in a facility several miles under the Earth's surface? Why couldn't she get used to interacting with other humans after spending an indescribable time without them?

She had seen the humans of today where she lived, but they seemed to be living in constant fear or anger of something. Perhaps it had to do with those masked soldiers she had seen a few days before near her apartment—they stormed a nearby house and forced the humans living in there into a strange vehicle, similar to a jeep but more heavily armored then any vehicle she had ever seen in her life.

Stepping over to the only window in her small one-room apartment, Chell shifted the curtains aside and peeked out into the daylight. Several other apartment blocks surrounded her own, each one reaching about 3-5 stories in height. She didn't know how many people actually lived in them but she estimated to be quite a bit, considering how many of those soldiers patrolled this place. Several windows had their curtains closed completely; the only people looking outside were only doing so for brief moments before returning to the safety of their closed doors.

A flash of light directed her attention to a giant TV screen built on one side of an abandoned complex, the image of a old, white-bearded man showing on the display as the man's voice began speaking a speech Chell had already heard before.

"_Welcome,_" it said as Chell closed her curtains and headed over to a small closet next to her bed, "_Welcome to City 17…_"

* * *

The full moon reflected heavily off the pale grassland below, creating a silver glow that was dazzling to the eye, whether those eyes were human or mechanical.

Carthage certainly thought it amazing.

The male android had been walking now for approximately 46 hours, the heat of the day or the cold of the night not causing major damage to his systems besides mild irritancies when he tried to rest. Not used to sleeping on hard ground, he had laid under a bare tree the previous night, his rucksack loosely on his back and his shotgun clutched to his chest for easy access in case of a threat. He had awoken several hours later with the sun overhead and his body starting to overheat from extended contact with natural sunlight. Interestingly, his body had not exhibited any form of sweat that the human body used to regulate temperature, the nano-system inside his body able to convert some of the solar energy he absorbed into electrical energy for his cybernetic parts.

Or, that's how he remembered it from GlaDOS's memories when she rebuilt him into what he was now—he could be wrong on what he was able to draw out of that scene because his human emotions considered seeing his own rebirth from a third-person view as strange. Then again, if GlaDOS allowed him full access to her memories, then she should have anticipated such a reaction from his half-human brain. Or perhaps this was something she HADN'T predicted, like the notion of a "human soul" existing inside a techno-organic body… Shaking his head in frustration at the countless thoughts the computer part of his brain tried to process, Carthage continued walking through the grass around him, his taloned feet being cushioned by the grass and leaving little of a footprint behind him.

A few hours later, Carthage's visual sensors were at 60% maximum efficiency. His oxygen intake was ragged at best, his hearing was slightly dulled, a dry taste filled his mouth and the edges of his vision were blurring. He also felt the human emotion of lethargy resonating through his organic muscles, but his artificial wiring was undamaged despite the long hours spent walking. Part of him wanted to just sit down and rest under the moonlight again, but another part of him wanted to keep walking for as long as possible so that his mission could be completed quicker.

'I really don't know how much time Chell has left,' Carthage thought to himself as he reached the top of a small hill, 'Maybe she's dead already…no, that can't be—GlaDOS would have noticed it by now and informed me, right?'

Carthage's thoughts suddenly stopped as he saw what was over the hill. A large, dry lakebed was before him, the moonlight being enough for Carthage's bionic eye to detect a rapid change in the water volume of this lake. Opening up the virtual satellite display on his Multi Purpose Glove, Carthage was surprised to see the display showed this exact lakebed to have water in it just a few days ago. How this was not true in real life and in so short a time span puzzled the android immensely.

Stepping down into the lakebed, Carthage quickly felt a change in the soil texture underneath his taloned feet—the dirt here was more wet and palpable underneath him, his feet sinking slightly into the lakebed the deeper he ventured. Reaching the bottom of the lakebed took exactly 1 minute and 34 seconds from the top, and Carthage's feet were completely covered in wet soil by the time he reached the bottom.

'I don't know too much about the acts of nature,' Carthage thought as he took a small handful of soil and ground it between the fingers on his left hand, 'But something on this scale doesn't look like it happens naturally, no matter how powerful solar energy may be. So, then, what or who wanted to remove so much water from this lake?'

A heavy wave of lethargy struck Carthage at that moment, his human muscles almost giving out and forcing him to stumble to regain his balance. Then, a surge of pain made him clutch his head as his mind was filled with something else…

_His hands cradled the mud as if it were a human infant, sculpting the mass into a small ball able to fit in the palm of his hand. Satisfied with the result despite the rain falling around him, he carefully put it in a small pile next to him that already contained several spheres of mud. A childlike glint came into his eyes as he took the pile into his dirty hands, admiring his handiwork as if he were a professional artist creating a masterpiece._

_Then he crushed the spheres together into an unrecognizable mass of dirt and water, the mud on his hands mixing with his former creation despite the efforts of the rain washing his hands of some dirt and grime as more of it leaked from the mass in his grip and between his fingers._

_"_Martin!_" a voice suddenly shouted out, making him turn his head, light-blue eyes flashing with surprise and recognition, "_What do you think you're doing out here?_"_

_His smile then was almost too big for his face to handle as he raised his hands above his head, ignoring the SPLOSH of mud getting on his face and clothes._

_"_I'm making mud pies, Mom!_" he then said with the joy of the child that he was, "_Come and see!_"_

Carthage's human eye snapped open before his optic reactivated, his body jerking upwards from where he had lain on the lakebed floor. A rumble of thunder filled his audio receptors, causing him to stumble backwards and fall on his rear end against the mud. He stared up at the now dark sky, the moon completely obstructed by large clouds. Sparks of electricity—_lightning_, he knew before he remembered how he knew—flashed in the clouds with energy readings hotter than any Hard Light Bridge he had ever tested in Aperture, the android's optic allowing him to see the individual sparks and their reverberations through the water vapor around them. Seconds later, waves of sound burst from the clouds and carried across the air, each wave rumbling like the roar of a predator striking down its prey. Carthage didn't move a muscle, staring in awe at this animalistic display of the natural world; it seemed to be created for only his eyes. To tell the truth, he was _frightened_ of this power. How could the human race have survived on the surface knowing nature could do _this_ to them? The largest dwellings he had seen in his human life were simple houses made of wood and some metals, but those had risks of being struck down by the lightning.

And then the rain started coming down.

Carthage was at first confused by the feeling of liquid water running down his techno-organic body before he started screaming at the top of his lungs and trying to brush the substance off of him as fast as possible. The last liquid he had ever seen was the acidic substance in the testing chambers, and he knew from GlaDOS's memories that acidic substances were NOT good for human or metallic objects. The boy's mind started going crazy, projecting the image of his body melting away before his eyes with nothing able to stop it. It soon became clear, though, that the rain was doing nothing to his skin despite his fears of what it COULD do.

Filled with some embarrassment about what he had just done, he looked at his human hand as if he were discovering it for the first time. The mud remaining on it was exactly like the mud he had seen in that vision. But he hadn't had visions like these since he was 'reborn' at Aperture. For a second, Carthage suddenly saw _two_ human hands on his body instead of one human and one mechanical, the unknown limbs looking like the limbs of a human child. Then his hands returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

'_What the HELL was that?_' was the only thought Carthage could come up with. The rain continued to come down in torrents, making the already wet soil in the lakebed. Not wanting to rest in a pile of wet dirt and possibly get circuit damage from extended water contact, Carthage slowly ambled his way up the other side of the lakebed, the upward passage taking approximately 4 minutes and 12 seconds due to the rain making the edges quite slippery to walk on.

* * *

_GlaDOS slipped from one data file to another deep inside the digital network, her body just another mass of digital numbers amongst all the OTHER masses of digital numbers. Floating through a small access tunnel into a large file section on Aperture's employees, GlaDOS then opened a small door with the label "LA-LZ" and stepped inside._

_Ever since Carthage had mentioned the work of Joshua Lee to her, the ruler of Aperture had wondered who ELSE among the human scientists could have been keeping things from her all-seeing eyes before she killed them all with neurotoxin. She had already examined all the former employees of Aperture with last names up to "JZ", but so far she hadn't found anything of major interest. The only real thing that caught her eye was a theory on rocket science that could allow a small projectile to be fired faster than the air or land speed record, but that theory was several years out of date. She hoped now that this "Joshua Lee" had some other interesting ideas besides the two-way transmission devices he had figured out with the Weighted Storage Cubes—the idea SHE was able to use when she saved the Weighted Companion Cube from the Emergency Intelligence Incinerator so long ago._

_The names of the employees ran by GlaDOS's vision faster than a human eye could possibly process in a single second, but GlaDOS was able to read them as if they were being scrolled on one of the oldest human computers ever invented. Even with researching the personalities of the human test subjects she had used Orange and Blue to discover before she had created OlaTOS, she found most of the scientists to be just that—scientists with no outside personalities other than their workload and the goals they were trying to accomplish under the "watchful" eye of Cave Johnson and…the woman she knew she once was. _

_Stopping suddenly, GlaDOS realized she had almost passed by the name of "Lee, Joshua" without noticing it. Cursing herself inwardly at how easily she was becoming distracted these days, the female android tapped the name on the display in front of her, opening a larger file to her optics which showed a facial shot of the man, DNA sample, blood type, work ethic, personality and testing abilities. The "testing abilities" part would make GlaDOS raise an eyebrow if she had any—she didn't know too much about the reasons why Cave Johnson made mandatory employee testing in the 1980's. What she DID know was that many scientists at the time hated it to a fault. Joshua Lee's file, however, said he worked in the 1950's-60's and his employment was ended by "undermined termination". GlaDOS would have scratched her head at reading this if she weren't currently a digital avatar inside Aperture's network. _

_'_Undermined termination…could this mean there was someone in my facility who didn't want this information to be released to the general public?_'_

_Feeling a new urge to check the rest of the employees for the human emotions of "treachery" and "lying", GlaDOS closed Mr. Lee's data file with a second tap and waved her other hand upward to scroll back up to the top of the list. She now began searching the files with renewed vigor, hoping to discover more of what her creators had kept from her before they perished by her hand._

* * *

Chell placed the Portal Device under her bed with the greatest care, not wanting to damage the device in any way despite all the trials it had gone through. As she placed it next to the Weighted Companion Cube, her eyes glazed over as the nightmare she had earlier flashed back into her mind unbidden.

"_You don't have to worry about me, you know…my "replacement" is coming to find you…we can be together again, just like old times._"

Chell couldn't understand this at all—why would a massive AI with power beyond human comprehension and in control of the largest facilities on the planet want to have an old and human testing subject she knew all too well would eventually try to escape again despite any intentions either of them had of the other. Then again, perhaps GlaDOS had developed a human sense of emotions—she _had_ discovered those feelings when the two of them encountered Old Aperture during the time Wheatley had gained power over the facility's upper levels. Perhaps she had grown on them over the past decade?

'_This is GLADOS you are talking about, silly,_' Chell thought to herself with a roll of her dark eyes as she stood back up and donned a light blue long-sleeved shirt she had received when she first entered City 17, '_she doesn't think like that. Even when she let you go from Aperture, she still had a tone of sarcasm when she told you never to come back. How could SHE develop human-based emotions?_' Chell put on pants with the same color as her shirt, patting the strange logo on her shirt once for good measure. The symbol was quite strange, looking like a ball and two horizontally extended triangles placed on either side of it. The ball itself was positioned to the left of an outer circle that held all three shapes inside of it, the end result looking like a winged ball or a comet frozen in time and turned into a symbol for the "Civil Protection Service" that Chell and the other humans in this city were watched by constantly.

Looking between her room's curtains again, Chell quickly closed them again as a spherical robot flew by her window. She had seen them before—they floated by these houses a lot of the time and seemed to take pictures of the humans inside. Chell had heard from the panicked whispers of other residents that they were also used to help the "Civil Protection" officers find and capture outlaws and criminals. She had never seen them in action, but she did not doubt what so many people were saying.

One other thing confused her though—there had been panicked whispers from women she had seen walking the streets about the loss of their children ever since these "officers" came into service. Something about loosing specific enzymes or proteins required for fetuses to form, she didn't really understand that part of human biology from what she remembered before Aperture. What she DID understand was that, somehow, the human race was unable to breed into the next generation.

'_Man,_' Chell thought to herself as she stepped out her apartment's door to head to her workspace for the day, '_What's this world coming to…?_'

* * *

**And I feel that is enough for this session. As always, comments, reviews and suggestions are welcome. Negative comments, however, are not recommended (after all, would you REALLY want to anger a dragon?).**

**Please keep your views coming as well-your continued readings of my stories are still confidence boosters to my writing. I hope I can keep my story as pleasing as it now in the future.**

**Draconos is taking off!**


End file.
